A series of high-profile cases involving toys laden with illegal chemicals being sold in Denmark has spurred the government into action today.
The environment and food minister, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, stated that the fines for selling toys laden with toxic compounds would be substantially increased in the future.
“We cannot accept that there are toys being sold in Denmark that are damaging to our kids, so I’ve sat down with the business minister [Rasmus Jarlov] to see how we can get the companies to adhere to the rules,” said Ellemann-Jensen.
“In future, we need to be able to punish companies that are careless with safety and better hold the companies accountable for what they sell.”
READ MORE: Popular soft toys full of toxic chemicals, analysis reveals
Careless whispers
One of these measures would include making it easier to report companies to the police – as it stands today, companies can only be reported to the police if they have been seen to break the rules intentionally and it’s difficult to prove culpability in these cases.
With the new rules, which will come into effect in July 2019, companies can be pursued by the authorities for simply being careless.
This summer, a new report from the Miljøstyrelsen environment and food authority recommended parents get rid of 12 squishies that were found to include too many chemicals.
