Stiftung Warentest: wooden toys are dangerous

Many parents keep wooden toys for the healthy Alternative to supposedly toxic plastic products. However, the Foundation were unveiled test: in many wood products, cancer of the plug-causing substances, and hazardous small parts.

Many wooden toys mountains, according to a study by the Stiftung Warentest risks for children. The supposedly more natural Alternative to the controversial plastic variant is thought according to the results, more dangerous than probably a lot of parents. The Test of 30 Wooden toys for children up to the third year, the Foundation presented on Thursday in Berlin.

More than half of the tested products got only the notes sufficient or deficient. 14 of the 30 dolls, slide, animals, blocks, or vehicles made of wood, the testers rated better, with good or satisfactory. And even the confidence-inspiring note "Made in Germany" according to the results, no guarantee of quality.

The testers complained about the following aspects of the 16 products that were rated as sufficient or deficient: Either dissolved in the Test small parts of the toy, the ingestion, the child, and in the worst case, it can suffocate. Or the wood itself, the paint or the cords contained toxic substances that cause cancer, the genetic damage, or reproductive ability can be dangerous.

The impurities ranging from formaldehyde to lead

The plywood puzzles formaldehyde, which could inhale children found, for example. In the rubber cords around the arms and legs of a wooden doll, were nitrosatable substances that can be carcinogenic. Children can you take if you suck at it. Heavy metal such as lead found in some paints.

"We had two toys in the Test, one of which is a direct threat ausgeht", Renate Ehrnsperger of the Foundation, said the test were. In the case of two detached small parts, the Test, a tube is fitted, similar to the throat of a Child.

Also on "Made in Germany" you should not rely

Even the note "Made in Germany" the team is no guarantee of quality. Two of the seven defective products which are produced in Germany, four in China. " ‘Made in Germany‘ doesn’t mean anything, it can be verlassen&quot not;, Hubertus Primus, chief Executive of the Foundation said the test were.

In a similar Test of the Foundation in 2010, two-thirds of the 50 tested toys were impacted much or very much. "The result of the former Tests schockierend&quot was;, Primus recalls. After all, only half of the tested toys is in the current Test-dangerous. Easily comparable the two Tests are not, however, said Primus. 2010 also stuffed animals and plastic dolls were tested in 2013, there were only wooden toys.