european union amended limit values for soluble cadmium in toys directive 2012 7 eu id 351 - establish limit values for chemical substances expressed in terms of migration. the use of migration instead of content was meant to focus on childrens real exposure to the substance. content referred to situations when a substance was present in a toy. however there were instances in which the substance would not migrate for instance if the relevant toy parts were not accessible to children when the toy was used as intended or in a foreseeable way taking into account childrens behaviour . in such cases children would not be exposed and consequently it would not be necessary to establish limits. - migration limits for cadmium as well as for other 18 elements had been established in the new toy safety directive 2009 48 ec based on the best scientific evidence available at the time. this evidence originated from a study carried out by the dutch national institute for public health and the environment rivm details of which were provided in the preamble to directive 2012 7 ec at issue in this meeting. the toy safety directive allowed the european commission to amend such limits in order to take into account science evolution and assure alignment with the latest scientific evidence. the migration limits were set based on the assumption that exposure of children to chemicals in toys may not exceed a certain level which was called tolerable daily intake tdi . in this regard since children were exposed to chemicals also via other sources than toys only a percentage of the tdi should be allocated to toys. - as a general background leading to the amendment of the measure cadmium and other chemical substances were particularly toxic and should not be intentionally used in those parts of toys that were accessible to children. hence the recommended allocation did not exceed 5 per cent of the tdi in order to ensure that only traces that were compatible with good manufacturing practice would be present. in january 2009 the european food safety authority had issued an opinion recommending a lower tdi in view of new developments related to the toxicology of cadmium. as a result the european commission proceeded to an amendment of the limits for cadmium allowed under the toy safety directive