Scope
The regulation applies to toys for children in Canada. The numeric metal provision transcribed here is section 23, covering stickers, films, removable similar materials, and surface coating materials applied to accessible parts of toys.
Exact limit and units
| Metal or provision | Matrix | Limit | Unit | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | Accessible sticker, film, similar removable material, or surface coating material | 90 | mg/kg | total lead |
| Mercury | Accessible sticker, film, similar removable material, or surface coating material | 10 | mg/kg | total mercury |
| Antimony, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, or barium compound | Accessible sticker, film, similar removable material, or surface coating material | 1,000 | mg/kg | migrated compound mass; not normalized to elemental metal |
How tested
Section 23 requires testing by a method that conforms to good laboratory practices. Schedule 2 also defines toxicity tests for substances and stuffing materials, but those LD50/LC50 criteria are not metal concentration limits.
Enforcement posture
The requirements are binding federal toy-safety regulations administered under Canadian product-safety law. Non-compliant toys may be refused sale, recalled, or otherwise subject to enforcement by Canadian authorities.
History of changes
The instrument is SOR/2011-17. The local PDF is a consolidated version current to June 14, 2026 and last amended November 20, 2024.
How it compares
The Canadian toy coating lead limit uses the same 90 mg/kg value as several international toy-paint or migration frameworks, but the mercury provision is a distinct 10 mg/kg total-mercury cap. The compound-migration provision is not directly comparable with element-normalized metals registers because it is expressed as compound mass.
Sources
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 7 sections added |