Safety and Material Testing at Sprig

Answering other questions fielded from our Twitter feed…

Question 1: How do you ensure the plastic in your products is phthalate and BPA free. How do consumers know they’re really safe?

Short Answer: we test our raw material (Sprigwood) and finished products to ensure that it has less then the regulated limits of nasty stuff (lead, phthalates, heavy metals) called for in these test parameters:

• CPSIA of 2008
• 16 CFR 1303
• ASTM F963-07 and -08 (sorry, I couldn’t find a better link.  you have to buy ASTM specs, so…)

Thus far, none of our toys have gone to market WITHOUT a certification of compliance with these tests. We pride ourselves on not only meeting, but exceeding standards.

More backup info: These tests are run for us by a 3rd party certification lab.  In fact, ALL toy manufacturers will be required by law to be 3rd party certified at some point, and some larger retailers mandate it currently.  Sprig Toys is very happy to work with NSF International to obtain our certifications.  The good folks at NSF Toy Safety have proven themselves honest, agile, and easy to communicate with.  Here’s a quote from their toy safety website:

NSF International has been testing products for chemical safety for more than 65 years. NSF’s chemical, microbiological, physical and toxicological experts evaluate thousands of commercial and consumer products every year in NSF’s state of the art laboratories. NSF inspectors audit factories in more than 80 countries to verify compliance with U.S. national standards, as well as international standards. Recent requests for NSF to apply its considerable public health safety testing resources have resulted in the development of specialized testing capabilities for toys and other children’s products.”

The project managers in NSF’s toy safety group run a great blog: playsafer.wordpress.com
And there’s a twitter account: twitter.com/Toy_Safety if you want to follow their take on the subject.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) isn’t federally regulated (yet), but recognizing that many of our customers are conscience of the controversy surrounding BPA, we’ve had Sprigwood tested for BPA presence.  As expected, there was NONE.  BPA is a building block for polycarbonate and epoxy plastics, not polypropylene or polyethylene plastics, so it would have been a real surprise to find it in there…

By the way, our wood content is certified to be formaldehyde free (and complies with the Lacey Act, which means it comes from legally harvested forests).

Question 2: How will the Wham-O merger/acquisition affect quality standards at Sprig Toys?

Sprig Toys is focused on the safety of our products and the materials they’re made from.  Wham-O knows and appreciates this and has told us many, many times to continue focusing on these things.  They are even going to use our experience and expertise to inject a greater degree of environmental/social sustainability into THEIR products!  Look forward to USA made Frisbees made out of Sprigwood, and many more things to come after!!!

Hope this answers some of your questions!

-Owen