KEMI | Enforcement 4/21: Materials in the public environment of children

This report describes an enforcement project on materials in children's public environment, and it is one of the initiatives carried out within the framework of the government assignment Action plan for a non-toxic everyday life.

The department of enforcement at the Swedish Chemicals Agency inspects companies that manufacture, import and sell chemical products and articles that contain or have been treated with chemical substances. The enforcement process includes chemical analyses of products to verify compliance with EU chemical legislation.

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SUMMARY

The department of enforcement at the Swedish Chemicals Agency inspects companies that manufacture, import and sell chemical products and articles that contain or have been treated with chemical substances. The enforcement process includes chemical analyses of products to verify compliance with EU chemical legislation. In this project we checked and analysed in total 90 articles used in the public environment of children. The articles were collected from 29 different companies. Nine of the articles were non-compliant due to content of restricted substances in concentrations above the maximum concentration value in the legislation. This corresponds to 10 per cent of the controlled articles. In addition, there were another eight products (9 per cent) containing substances on the candidate list, in concentrations above 0,1 per cent by weight. For 35 articles (39 per cent) we did not find any of the substances we searched for. The regulated substances found in this project were mainly PAHs which are a contaminant in rubber materials, the flame retardant TCPP, the blowing agent ADCA and the plasticiser DIBP. These substances are suspected to cause serious damage to health, such as cancer, allergies, and impaired reproductive capacity. It is important to remove such substances from the immediate environment of children. It is the companies’ responsibility to ensure that the products are safe. In order to achieve this, it is important to impose specific chemical requirements on suppliers, and to follow up on these requirements, for example by conducting sampling checks. The project began and ended with information meetings with companies offering indoor playgrounds and activity centers for children, to draw their attention to existing legislation. The information meetings have been carried out in collaboration with the Swedish Consumer Agency, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning.

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