Toys 'R' Us Adopts Tighter Standards for Toxics in Products

WAYNE, — Amid the growing concern about contaminants in children's toys and products, Toys "R" Us tightened its product safety requirements Friday for items the company sells.

Toys "R" Us will enforce more stringent lead content guidelines for all products manufactured exclusively for the company. Rather than the federal standard of 600 parts per million (ppm), Toys "R" Us will require 90 ppm for lead in surface coatings of products. Substrate materials must meet a 250 ppm for lead, rather than the federal 600 ppm.

Toys "R" US will conduct more frequent testing of its products using a third party. The company also will date-code each product, and use lead screening equipment to audit products at their point of origin and subsequent points in the supply chain.

By the end of 2008, juvenile products sold by Toys "R" Us or Babies "R" Us must be made without addition of phthalates; the company plans to one day sell PVC-free products, though it has not set a deadline to do so. Toys "R" Us has also asked its manufacturers to eliminate nickel-cadmium batteries from items made exclusively for the company.

"We sell toys and baby products every day of the year," said Jerry Storch, the company's chairman and CEO. "As such, we have made it very clear to manufacturers that we need not wait for the finalization of the much-needed tighter federal standards that are currently pending in welcome legislation before the U.S. Congress."