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You are in: Home > Press office > Press Releases Archive > Press Releases 2009 > 044/2009

Press Release 044/2009

Press release PDF / 50 KB

Joint press release with the Environmental Label Jury and the Federation of German Consumer Organisations - vzbv

Blue Angel for improved safety in the children’s room

Eco-label on untreated wooden toys

There is now a Blue Angel to award wooden toys that are both harmless to health and ecological. Finally, there is a reliable and trustworthy label for safe wooden toys after all the negative headlines about dangerous toys. The oldest and best-known eco-label is a guarantee of acceptability.

Parents and children will hopefully not have to wait too long for the first wooden toys marked with the Blue Angel. Several toy manufacturers have already expressed their interest in the eco-label. In a petition started today in Cologne, advocates of the Blue Angel hope to raise awareness of the new eco-label and see to it that more safe toys find their way into the nursery.

The Environmental Label Jury chairman, Dr. Volker Teichert, Executive Director of the Federation of German Consumer Organisations - vzbv Mr. Gerd Billen, and Mr. Armin Maiwald, producer of the Sendung mit der Maus TV programme, hope the petition will encourage businesses to adopt the label on a large scale in the interest of all children:

• ”Children have a right to toys that are unobjectionable in health terms. It is our goal to have a wide variety of wooden toys with the Blue Angel label in the shops by Christmas,” explains Jury Chairman Teichert.
• ”Finally, there is reliable guidance with the Blue Angel when it comes to purchasing toys made of wood. The Blue Angel will make for safe nurseries and give parents and children peace of mind,” said vzbv Executive Director Billen.
• ”I hope that many toy manufacturers will answer our plea. After all, our children are our future, and we must take special care to protect them from adverse health impact,” said Dr. Thomas Holzmann, Vice President of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), on the launch of the new eco-label.

As with all goods and services that are awarded the Blue Angel, wooden toys, too, must meet the highest standards of health and environmental protection. The wood used to make wooden toys may originate from sustainable forestry only; in addition, it must be free of synthetic fragrances, flame retardants and wood preservatives.

The Blue Angel is the consumers’ objective neutral eco-label. It is backed by the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, the Environmental Label Jury, the RAL gGmbH (label-awarding agency), and UBA. The Blue Angel is awarded only to products that are more ecological, more utilisable and more healthful than other comparable goods and services. There are currently 10,000 products made by some 950 companies in 90 different product groups.

Companies seeking to apply for the new Blue Angel for wooden toys may direct enquiries to RAL gGmbH, Siegburger Straße 39, 53757 Sankt Augustin, email: Umweltzeichen@RAL-gGmbH.de.

More information on the Blue Angel is here: www.blauer-engel.de.
A picture file of the Blue Angel for health-protective wooden toys is available from the UBA Press Office.

Dessau-Roßlau, 26 June 2009

 

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