Recommendations for the CMR Restriction in childcare articles

 Recommendations

1. The proposal could clarify the scope regarding electrical and electronic components, and the discrepancy between the age range in EN standards and the proposal.
2. Issue supporting guidance the form of a practical guidelines, to help ensure consistent implementation. The ECHA investigation report could form the basis, more clearly describe the compliance steps in an operational manner.
3. Following from above, the measure should be clear that in place of testing for thousands of substances, an assessment of substances in specific materials with focus on testing where risk is highest shall be implemented.
4. The restriction proposal could benefit from aligning the requirements and testing with the CMR restriction under the Toy Safety Regulation, although there are still practical uncertainties on how to achieve compliance with the latter.
5. The proposal could consider a migration-based limit aligned for Bisphenol A (BPA) with the Toy Safety Regulation in place of a uniform BPA content limit, as this better reflects actual exposure while also avoiding disproportionate impacts on sustainable materials.
6. The proposal could consider alignment of heave metals migration testing methods with the TSR.
7. The proposal foresees a 36-month transition period but does not appear to include explicit exemptions for articles already in use. It could benefit from an explicit exemption of products in stock, as is the case for certain REACH restrictions.

Read the full text of the Position Paper below.