Macedonia Watchdog Issues Toxic Toys Warning

A Macedonian NGO is warning that tests that they have run on randomly selected toys being sold in the country have uncovered worrying results.

"Our country is practically a dump for hazardous toys,"Natasa Dokovska, head of Journalists for Children and Women’s Rights, part of the wider network of Women in Europe for a Common Future, said 

Although toys are subjected to checkups on entering the country, many toxic toys that are banned still slip through inspections, she added.

Dokovska maintains that Macedonia lags behind the EU in toy safety standards, and says the laboratory at the Institute for Public Health, which conducts tests on imported toys, works with old equipment and methods.

"EU laws envisage a toy being tested against nine toxic chemicals before pronounced safe [but] our laboratories test for only three of these chemicals," Dokovska said.

A survey carried out in October by another local NGO, Eko-sevest, revealed that more than 30 confirmed toxic products could easily be found in stores in Macedonia, many of them in toys.

Macedonia’s Sanitary and Health Inspectorate, in charge of inspecting the quality of consumer products, said it would look in to these findings.