Aluminium in Toys

The Commission's independent scientific committee (SHEER) published last week their final opinion on tolerable intake of aluminium with regards to adapting the migration limits for aluminium in toys, as laid down in the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC.

The Commission asked SCHEER to:

• Review the currently available data on the toxicity of aluminium;
• Present a recommendation for a tolerable intake level for aluminium based on most recent data, including exposure to aluminium from sources other than toys; and
• Analyse whether the acceptable levels established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2008 (i.e. Tolerable Weekly Intake of 1 mg/kg bodyweight/week) and by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) in 2011 (i.e. Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake of 2 mg/kg bodyweight/week) are still adequate.

In their final opinion, SCHEER:

• Recommends to set the tolerable daily intake for aluminium at 0.3 mg/kg bodyweight/day;
• Calculates the resulting migration limits for aluminium from toys according to the recommended tolerable daily intake and the SCHER opinion of 2010, which recommends allocating 10% of the tolerable daily intake to toys, as follows: 2250 mg aluminium/kg of dry, brittle, powder-like or pliable toy material, 560 mg aluminium/kg of liquid or sticky toy material and 28130 mg aluminium/kg of scraped-off toy material.
• Recommends that, considering that the exposure from other sources such as food may already exceed the tolerable intake values derived by both EFSA and JECFA, the additional exposure to aluminium from toys should be minimised.