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It is Toy Trade Fair season again and at ASL this is a busy time of the year. Through our certification of a wide range of stuffed toys as asthma & allergy friendly^TM, attendance at these events is of great importance. For a stuffed toy to pass our Certification criteria there are several principles that they need to adhere to (see below). Due to the nature of testing principles where quality of construction and durability are concerned, only toys of the highest quality will be capable of passing testing.

These principles and our extensive testing suite were part of the Certification package that Dr. John McKeon (CEO) and Fraser Hodgson (International Sales Manager) were discussing with a range of toy manufacturers and retailers at toy fairs in China, England and Germany. Both John and Fraser attended the Hong Kong Toy and Game Fair in January, along with 33,000 buyers, and received considerable interest in the asthma & allergy friendly^TM Certification Program.

Fraser later attended the Toy Fair in London in late January and the International Toy Fair Nürnburg in February. Even though the Program has not yet been launched in Europe, at both fairs there was considerable interest in the Program, and with the coming launch of the UK asthma & allergy friendly^TM Certification Program we hope to be introducing new stuffed toy additions to the Program in the very near future.

Principles of asthma & allergy friendly^TM Certification for Stuffed Toys:

• Allergen and dust mite accumulation on the outer surface of the toy must be removable by domestic appliances.
• The rate of house dust mite allergen accumulation in a stuffed toy under defined conditions must be determined.
• The toy must be able to withstand the physical treatments necessary to achieve low levels of allergen and dust mites.
• The presence of chemicals, within the stuffing and toy, must be non-detectable by standard testing techniques, or must not exceed accepted limits.