On 23 June 2015, the County Executive of Suffolk County signed the ‘Toxic Free Toys Act’into law. This law sets strict limits for the total content of six heavy metals (antimony, arsenic,cadmium, cobalt, lead and mercury) in products intended primarily for children up to the age of twelve, The limits antimony, arsenic, cobalt, and mercury, each at 40 ppm; lead at 90 ppm in coatings and 100 ppm in substrates; and cadmium at 75 ppm.

Suffolk County Department of Health will first notify retailers beginning January 2016.Inspectors will then begin to randomly inspect at least 10 retailers every quarter beginning December 2016. The inspectors will XRF screen on-site no more than 10 children’s products for each retailer.

According to the definitions in the Toxic Free Toys Act, the following products are not within the meaning of a ‘Children’s product’:

1. Batteries

2. Consumer electronic components or products

3. Drugs, medical devices or biological products (FDA)

4. Food or food additives (FDA)

5. Paper products