Glues, erasers, pens... Nearly half of the school supplies checked were non-compliant

Chewing on a pen , sniffing glue, or smearing yourself with marker can all be harmful to your health. Suffice it to say that during this school shopping season, it's time to be vigilant. Between 2023 and 2024, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) inspected 46 establishments, wholesalers, and retailers of school supplies .

The research led investigators to conduct an in-depth analysis of the composition of 31 products in their laboratories. These supplies primarily included erasers, pens, markers, highlighters, and glues, as well as correction fluids and pens.

In total, 14 products were found to be non-compliant, nine of which even posed a health risk. "The danger lay in the composition of these products, which contained chemical substances in quantities exceeding the regulatory limit," the DGCCRF stated.

The consequences were far from trivial. According to the consumer watchdog, some of these products contained too high a level of phenoxyethanol, which could cause serious eye damage. Other products were manufactured with too high a quantity of propan-1-ol, which is highly irritating to the eyes, or octylisothiazolinone, which can cause skin problems and is also toxic to the marine environment.

This substance was found in particular in "large yellow and orange highlighters," the DGCCRF said, without providing further details. The risk is even greater for young children, whose smaller size makes the amount of product ingested more harmful.

Furthermore, the dangerousness of these products also lay in the absence of certain warning and hazard warnings on the packaging. Sometimes, the pictograms were present but too small. "Professionals concerned by the dangers generally withdrew and recalled the products in question from the market voluntarily," assures the DGCCRF. Otherwise, measures were taken by the anti-fraud department. Thus, in Île-de-France, the DGCCRF withdrew 66,221 highlighters, 18,000 correction pens, and 6,048 pens.

Other school supplies have sometimes been recalled, even from the homes where they were purchased. This is notably the case for Expertiz highlighters sold by Aldi, for which the recall notice was issued in October 2023. Or for dual-tip permanent markers, sold by Cultura and recalled in March 2024.

In total, the DGCCRF issued 39 warnings to remind people of the regulations, 15 injunctions and 3 reports "to correct or sanction the most serious breaches," details the fraud prevention department. For example, for the marketing of a mixture containing a dangerous chemical substance with non-compliant labeling.

In some cases, injunctions were sent to manufacturers to remove prohibited claims such as the term "biodegradable" from glue or to remove unjustified claims, such as "PVC and plasticizer free" and "free from harmful substances" from erasers. These were sales pitches for environmental protection intended to attract consumers but had nothing to do with the reality of the product being sold.

For business owners, these breaches can be costly. The Consumer Code stipulates that in the event of deception—or attempted deception—a penalty of two years' imprisonment and a fine of €300,000 can be imposed. "These penalties can be increased to €750,000 and the imprisonment to seven years if the deception, or attempted deception, has resulted in the use of the goods being dangerous to human or animal health," warns the DGCCRF.

So to avoid ending up with dangerous products, the consumer watchdog advises you to read and reread labels carefully. Even if it can be tedious.