Safety testing of pencils and graphic intruments

Safety Testing of Pencils and Graphic Instruments

Pencils and Graphic Instruments must be safe. It is possible that unsafe products may cause injury or even death.

Regulations

The Pencils and Graphic Instruments (Safety) Regulations and the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 will control the safety of this type of product. These Regulations provide a legal framework to ensure that a producer or distributor supplies a safe product.

Relevant Standards

There are several British Standards relevant to this type of product.

BS EN 71-3: Migration of certain elements. This standard deals controls the amount of antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium that is permitted to leach from paints, plastics, etc that are used in the construction of pencils and graphic instruments. This standard is referred to in the Pencils and Graphic Instruments (Safety) Regulations
BS 7272-1: Writing and marking instruments – Part 1: Specification for safety caps.
BS 7272-2: Writing and marking instruments – Part 2: Specification for end closures

The BS 7272 standards are designed to assess if safety caps or end closures are likely to present choking hazards.

Available Tests

Listed below is a selection of tests that can be carried out by Leicestershire Scientific Services.

BS EN 71-3: Migration of certain elements.
BS 7272-1: Cap size, ventilated caps vent area and ventilated caps air flow.
BS 7272-2: Size, security, inaccessibilty, minimal protrusion, air flow.

Safety Testing of Pencils and Graphic Instruments

Regulations

Relevant Standards

Available Tests

Please contact us for further information or advice on:

Tel: 0116 305 5640 Fax: 0116 305 5660 scientificservices@leics.gov.uk

further information