As part of on-going efforts to deal with potential safety hazards in children’s toys, ASTM-International has recently sent revised specifications to the Consumer Product Safety Commission for adoption. These revisions primarily deal with heavy metals and how to measure those quantities; the stability of ride-on toys; strangulation concerns in squeeze toys, cords, straps, elastics, and strings, and rigid projections on bath toys that could potentially puncture a child’s skin or cause other impalement injuries if he were to fall on it.

“The heavy metals testing has been made more robust,” said Leonard Morrissey, director of technical committee operations for ASTM-International. Similarly, with the squeeze toys’ revision, the idea was to be “consistent with revisions about strangulation hazards.”

ASTM-International (formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials) announced these revised standards on December 15. If approved, the revisions would go into effect in 180 days.“There’s every indication that the CPSC is happy with the revisions,” Morrissey said, adding that working on safety standards is “an evolving, living document. Other changes will be coming in 2012.”

Check out our Buying Advice (free) and Ratings (available to subscribers) for a wide range of products for babies and kids. And follow us on Facebook and Twitter.