EN 71-4:2020, which constitutes the fourth part of the EN 71 series of standards on safety of toys, has been published by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) on 2020-12-23, to supersede EN 71-4:2013.

This Standard applies to experimental sets for chemistry and related activities including crystal growing sets, carbon dioxide generating experimental sets and supplementary sets. It also covers sets for chemical experiments within the fields of mineralogy, biology, physics, microscopy and environmental science whenever they contain one or more chemical substances and/or mixtures which are classified as hazardous according to Regulation (EC) No. 1272/2008. It is expected that this new standard will be cited in the OJEU under 2009/48/EC (Toy Safety Directive) soon.

Changes:
The significant changes from the previous edition of this Standard are detailed in Annex C of EN 71-4:2020. Those changes are summarized as follows:
1. Exclusion of “combined sets” from the scope of the standard;
2. Description of the online terminological databases maintained by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC);
3. Food additives and their mixtures according to the Food Additives Regulation [EC] 1333/2008 are allowed to be supplied in chemistry sets;
4. Non-hazardous foods and other household materials (e.g., starch, flour etc.) can be suggested for experiments;
5. Updates to Tables 1 to 5, which indicate the maximum amounts of chemical substances and mixtures allowed to be supplied in experimental sets and their corresponding labelling required;
6. The requirements on closures for child-resistant containers that need to be used in chemistry sets have been revised, and test method improved. Only those in compliance with EN ISO 8317:20153 are permitted, while other options provided previously have been removed;
7. Eye protection and relevant safety rules are required for carbon dioxide generating experimental sets, if they contain substances requiring GHS pictogram GHS05;
8. Details of manufacturer / importer are no longer specifically requested on the primary packaging in this Standard, since they are already required under the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC.

Effective Date:
This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard of the EU countries, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by 2021-06-30 (date of Publication), and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by December 2021-12-31 (date of Withdrawal).

References:

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