ASTM International Publishes Revised F963 Toy Standard

October 17, 2023 | ASTM International has published a revised F963 Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety (ASTM F963-23) on October 13, reflecting changes approved within the ASTM International F15.22 Subcommittee on Toy Safety over the past few years. The multi-stakeholder subcommittee, chaired by Joan Lawrence, The Toy Association’s senior vice president of standards & regulatory affairs, is charged with overseeing the consensus standard to ensure that it keeps pace with product innovation and the latest intel on child behavior and risk.

The revisions impact the technical requirements for acoustics (sound level of toys), battery accessibility, expanding materials, and projectiles, in addition to clarifying and aligning the requirements for phthalates, exemptions for toy substrate materials, and tracking labels for toys with respective federal regulations and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) policy. Numerous editorial changes to the standard were also made.

Under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008, once the revised standard is published and ASTM officially notifies CPSC of the revision, CPSC has 90 days to object to any changes the agency determines as not enhancing toy safety. The 90-day window is expected to conclude in mid-January 2024. If no objections are raised, the revision becomes mandatory 180 days after notification (expected in mid-April 2024). CPSC practice has been that changes to consensus standards are applied prospectively from the effective date — applying to products manufactured on or after that date, rather than retroactively to products produced before the effective date — and The Toy Association™ will encourage such implementation in this case as well.

In addition, new work items have also begun on other technical areas of the standard and will likely result in additional changes to be made in a future revision to ASTM F963. These areas of focus include: acoustics, certain aquatic toys, battery accessibility, ride-on toys that resemble youth ATVs, and water/gel bead toys, as well as the standards for tricycles and nitrosamines in pacifiers. Each of these items is being discussed in individual technical working groups within ASTM, led by Association staff and members. Members can contact Joan Lawrence or Jos Huxley for more details or to volunteer in a working group.

An overview of the changes will be provided to Toy Association members within the coming weeks. Additionally, The Toy Association will continue to keep its members apprised of activity related to potential changes to the safety standards for toys going forward. Any questions on these efforts may be directed to Joan Lawrence, senior vice president of standards at The Toy Association and chair of the ASTM Subcommittee on Toy Safety, or Jos Huxley, senior vice president of technical affairs. 

For more information, visit ASTM.org.