One of the problems that was realised was the possibility of young adults having small children in thier homes and interpret Tarka as a toy that they can play with, due to it looking like a cute animal. Because of this I had to make sure that the product was safe for children.
The British Standards Institue specify a range of elements that cannot be used in childrens toys, and so as a result of this I should avoid using them on the outer casing of Tarka as this is what the children would be touching.
British Standards also specify to make sure that children cannot bite parts of the product off which they can then choke on. The product was designed to stop this however, as shown below:
Showing old texture (left) that was redesigned (right)
As shown above the spiky fur was redesigned to be a lot smoother and more rounded. As a result of this it means that the children are not able to get thier teeth around it and bite it off, casuing them to choke on it. Also in order to make it so that it was safe for children if the paint was scratched or sucked on the spray paint used would be water based.
The product packaging would also clearly have the ‘not for children aged 0-3’ label on it as specified by the standard PD CEN/TR 13387-5:2018 section 4.
Other Concerns:
Additional concerns have been adressed in different sections of the website:
- Electro-magnetic field produced by induction charging (Induction Charging)
- Heat produced by induction charging (Materials and Manufacture)
