The certification of a new paint reference material

Abstract

The use of paint as a coating for toys intended for sale on the European market is controlled by a European Standard (EN 71-3: 1994-European Standard for the Safety of Toys, Part 3—Migration of Elements). This work is the result of a preliminary study organised by the European Commission to produce a new paint reference material which can be used to validate the test methods given in the European Standard. The migration of elements from painted panels and comminuted paint produced by the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, (U.K.) was studied. Several methods were used in this certification exercise and this work reports the recults of neutron activation analysis and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to determine the migration of As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Se and Sb into a simulated stomach environment. Replicate extracts obtained from paint samples gave a precision of within 10% for most elements by both analytical techniques for the paint panels and for the comminuted paint sample. This preliminary study has shown that the standard method can provide reproducible results for each of the paint materials studied and indicates that the study should be continued to produce a fully certified paint reference material.