Bureau of Standards inspection of handheld lanterns finds 3 items with plasticizer levels exceeding limits by 88 to 112 times
As the Lantern Festival approaches, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs sampled and tested 15 "hand-held lanterns" sold on the market. The results found that 3 of them had plasticizer content ranging from about 88 to 112 times the national limit standard, and one of them, after a drop test, was prone to breaking and producing small fragments. The BSMI reminds parents that when purchasing and using hand-held lantern toys, they should choose products bearing the "Commodity Inspection Mark."
The BSMI stated that this inspection was mainly based on CNS national standards to test the quality items of hand-held lantern toys, including "physical properties," "flame resistance," "chemical properties" and "electrically driven" aspects. In the chemical part, it mainly tested the content of 8 heavy metals "lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, arsenic, selenium, antimony, barium" and the content of 8 phthalate plasticizers "DEP, DMP, DEHP, DBP, BBP, DINP, DIDP and DNOP," etc.
The results showed that the "plastic alloy toy (lantern)" sold by Taiwan Stationery King Company on Dongda Road in Hsinchu City, imported from China, had a DEHP content of 11.28% in its soft plastic wire; the "crystal lantern" sold by National Tong Toy Store in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City, had a DBP content of 0.03% and a DEHP content of 9.56% in its soft plastic wire, totaling as high as 9.59%; and another "medium triangular palace lantern" sold by National Tong Toy Store had a DEHP content of 8.84% in its soft plastic wire, all exceeding the national standard limit requirement of 0.1% for "phthalate plasticizers."
In addition to chemical testing, in the physical testing part, the "crystal lantern" sold by National Tong Toy Store in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City, after undergoing a drop test, the body would break and produce small fragments.
