A friend is opening a children’s store and has asked me to make some mobiles for the store decor. She had seen ones I made for my kids - geometric shapes cut from 3mm Sintra attached to stainless spring wire and fish line, pretty simple stuff. She has also suggested I should sell them out of her store. My concern is the size of the Sintra shapes, I don’t want kids under 3 to swallow and choke on the parts. Does anyone know the specifations for a “choking” item or knows of a source (book on Amazon, web site, etc.) of that type of information.
I worked in the toy industry and there is an acrylic choke tube that we used as a standard. The toy would be trhown into this clar plastic tube we had in teh studio.
It is a tube that simulated a child’s throat and was a certain diameter and height… Perhaps you can look for it on google?
You can get away with a small diameter if it is a long part.
I’ve used throat gauges myself… they’re an angles cylander that’s approx. 4" high and cut at about a 45 degree angle. If your part sticks out of it competely, it’s OK.
Any images of the mobiles you could share - that would help to asess.
if its connected to wires and fishing line, then what’s the problem?
you can fish it out
Thank you for the information. Its true that the assembled mobile would pass the test, I am worried if one of the Sintra pieces is pulled off the wire and swallowed. Thanks again for your help.
Not sure if you’re serious or not, but there’s a good chance that the piece could break free of the wire/string and become lodged in the child’s throat.
There are standard gauges for small parts. Try a google search. I don’t have any in front of me at the moment.
Parents magazine and ivillage.com recommends that if it can fit through a toilet paper roll that it’s considered unsafe for children under 3. I don’t know what the thing is called but it’s what’s left of the TP roll when you’ve used the last square.
Go to ASTM.org for the standards. There are restrictions on the choke tube, any piece that fits in the tube (without sticking out) must withstand 20# force pulled on it that attaches it to a part that doesn’t fit in the tube. The wires and lines all must also be short enough not to make a loop that could fit around the child’s head.
It’s more complicated than it seems.