Analysis of Heavy Metals in Toys and Accessories by ICPE-9800 Series

Introduction

In recent years, safety issues related to inexpensive metal toys and accessories have become a social problem. In particular, the presence of heavy metals such as lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in toys poses a health risk to infants if such contaminated toys are licked, placed in the mouth, or even swallowed. Therefore, toys and accessories are now required to be evaluated for safety with respect to their content using an appropriate test method. These test methods are defined according to various international standards, including ISO 8124 (Safety of toys) and the European standard EN71-Part3 (Safety of toys – Migration of certain elements). Both are dissolution tests based on the assumption that such toys and accessories will be ingested by infants, resulting in the absorption of toxic elements into the body. Such an analysis of toys and accessories requires that, in addition to being able to measure harmful trace elements with high sensitivity, measurement can be conducted for multiple samples quickly and at low cost. Here, using the Shimadzu ICPE-9800 series multi-type ICP atomic emission spectrometer, we conducted measurement of commercially available toys and metallic accessories as samples. The ICPE-9800 series, with its mini-torch plasma and spectrometer capable of simultaneous analysis of all elements at all wavelengths, can conduct high-throughput, low-cost analysis with high sensitivity and high accuracy.

April 21, 2015 GMT