Is Your Whiteboard Coating Safe for Schools? EN 71-3 and RoHS, Explained

If you buy writing surfaces for school boards, one question eventually lands on your desk:

can you prove the coating is safe for children? A certificate with a nice border is not

an answer — the standard it names is. Two names matter most, and they test very different things.

EN 71-3: the heavy-metal migration test

EN 71 is the European safety standard for toys, and Part 3 governs **migration of certain

elements** — how much of 19 metals (lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic and others) can leach out

of a material in stomach acid, simulating a child swallowing it. Category III is the strictest

scraped-off-material class. A coating that passes Category III has essentially nothing mobile

to release.

Our whiteboard surface was tested in April 2025 by SGS (report XMHL250400224501TY):

• Soluble lead: not detected. Soluble cadmium: not detected.
• All 19 elements pass against Category III limits, requested age grading 3+.
• The same report covers EN 71-2:2020 flammability — the surface does not support flame

spread.

One wording note: this is a test report, not a "toy certificate". We describe it exactly

as that — *tested to EN 71-3, pass* — and we suggest you use the same precision with any

supplier who waves an EN 71 paper at you.

RoHS: the hazardous-substance screen

RoHS (Directive (EU) 2015/863) restricts ten substance groups — lead, mercury, cadmium,

hexavalent chromium, two brominated flame-retardant families and four phthalate plasticisers.

It was written for electrical equipment, but EU importers increasingly ask for it on any

coated article, because it is the fastest screen for "nothing nasty in the paint".

Our coating was tested to the full ten-group list by SGS in October 2022

(report XMHL2209007038SD): every restricted substance was not detected or far below the limit.

What to ask your surface supplier

• Which sample was tested — the actual coating, or a generic "similar product"?
• Which standard and year — EN 71-3 has been revised; an outdated citation is a red flag.
• The report number. Ours are public: EN 71 & flammability, Apr 2025

and RoHS, Oct 2022.

• Whether the report covers the colour you are buying. Ours covers the whiteboard

surface; chalkboard surfaces are separate formulations and deserve the same question.

Safety claims are only as good as the paperwork behind them — so we put ours where anyone can

check them. See the full testing regime on our quality control page,

or request the reports with your whiteboard surface quote.