"Child Toy Safety" and Ruby Red Paints by Gary Cole

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If you search the internet it does not take long to understand that a "child toy safety rating" is defined MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. I would challenge anyone claiming THE definition. In the toy industry it will be defined one way, to mom's of children under the age of three it will be defined differently, to elementary schools it is another and to Wikipedia it is yet another. There are multiple agencies where you pay a fee and you send out your toy or product and you tell them what your target age group is and they certify it against a long list of check points. You then get a certificate to verify your compliance against this. Some toy stores require specific certificates sometimes from a specific testing agency and others another. Depending on your safety concerns the certificate can meet different standards. The true question is, is the given product age appropriate. Something given or used on a 12 year old might not be safe for a 3 year old and even more unsafe for a 6 month old. You might find a toy that is safe for a 6 month old but not a 6 year old. At Ruby Red Paints we send out our products for safety testing to independent labs to meet a "child toy safety" standard that is required by the many store resellers we cater to. We are doing this to meet their expectation to safety. We pass this with flying colors. The ONLY CONCERN is the 2ml paints might cause a choking hazard to those under three. The small 1.25 inch disk of paint COULD be dislodged and if ingested it could choke a small child simply because of its size. For Ruby Red Paints, we send our paints to the independent consumer products testing labs. They test our products for many things. Among them are "ingredient requirements of the USA FDA" and  "ASTM F963-95 Standard Consumer Safety Specification on Toy Safety - 4.3.5".

The key to any product is it age appropriate. Here are some examples.. One pair of scissors would be "safe" for a industry professional and a completely different pair would be "safe" to be used by a child under the age of six. A bottle of Draino would be safe to be used by an adult to unstop a clogged sink but very unsafe for use by a child as it can cause blindness and even death if not handled properly. Bottom line is safety.

The bottom line is common sense, reality and a sense of being unbiased has a lot to do with if a product is or is not safe for a particular age group. In my two examples I'm sure that 20 different people could logically debate what age is acceptable for any given pair of scissors or at what age could one safely use Draino to unclog the sink.

At Ruby Red Paints we are complying with our customers safety standard as well as our own internal standard. We are regulated as a cosmetic product and that is our primary focus. From our beginning the owner wanted a product that would be safe for use on children's skin. Over time it has become our primary marketing focus to offer a product that is first safe, second offer great application when used as intended and third great value. We honestly feel no company works harder to provide the world with the safest safe paint in the world. No company has done more safety testing.

To me... It means our face paints can be handed to a child of six and even if it is abused by the child the child would not be harmed. If they painted 100 percent of their body, if they ate it, if they dripped it in their eyes, ears and nose it would be HIGHLY UNLIKELY that ANY HARM would be done to a child.

We do not offer products like our competitors than can only be used on this or that part of the body. Just look at other face painting products that are non-Ruby Red Paints. It is common to find on other products the warning "do not use red, yellow, orange or violet in the eye area. Do not use blue, green or violet near the mouth. Do not use on children under the age of 8." Sorry but those warnings do not attract me to that product. We do not offer products that do not pass the cosmetic laws of the US FDA, the EU, Canada and Mexico. If it fails any, we do not offer it. You should be very careful about products that are labeled as "for hair and special effects only". This is a bold announcement that the product was manufactured NOT with cosmetic laws in mind and are instead made according to guidelines for hair products. You will often see this as a warning on other brands of UV/blacklight products as they are using pigments that are approved for use in the hair and NOT the skin. Those products should be avoided. The key is overall safety and not making a buck on a product (like dayglow face paints) that do not comply. THAT is a great bottom line that none of our competitors meet. We are very proud of our unsurpassed safety record and we put it in writing at www.rubyredpaint.com/safety.htm Ruby Red Paints do offer a full line of UV/blacklight products that are fully approved for use on the skin.

Gary Cole
Ruby Red Paints USA Inc.
gary@rubyredpaint.com

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