The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has released guidelines for the manufacturing of sex toys, “from the types of materials safe for contact with mucosal membranes to the tolerable range of vibratory frequency to the need for flanges or wide bases on objects designed to be inserted into one’s tuchus.”
https://www.wired.com/story/sex-toy-standards/
They’ve got guidelines for the material used to make sex toys. We hope this doesn’t result in another “phthalate scare”, where one scientist found that some laboratory animals had an adverse reaction to phthalates. This resulted in a panic causing manufacturers to remove phthalates from their products, which in turn resulted in lower quality and more expensive toys for years. Since then they’ve developed new formulas that are much better. But it was all hype, and in fact, a study on using sex toys with phthalates, with actual humans and actual sex toys, found no cause for alarm.
Some of the guidelines are a little disturbing to us. One of them suggests a limit on how hot a product can get, (it should shut off at 118 degrees). That’s a good thing. The guidelines on wide bases on anal toys are also a positive move. But another section talks about how long and how hard a product can vibrate before it can hurt someone. The article above points this out: “Tricky, because some people are looking for some hurt from their sex toys…”
We haven’t read the standards document because it costs 88 Swiss Francs, or about $97. We would like to read the document because other than wide bases on butt plugs, we don’t know if it has anything to say about the size and shape of insertable toys. If they decide that people shouldn’t stick anything longer than six inches up their butts, we’re in trouble! And so are some of our suppliers.
We’re a little concerned about this because the article below talks about “guidelines”, but the title of the ISO document is “ISO 3533:2021: Sex toys — Design and safety requirements for products in direct contact with genitalia, the anus, or both” (emphases ours). Yes, these are requirements, not “guidelines”. This means that if Doc Johnson, Pipedream, Blush, Mr. Hanky, or any other manufacturer wants to put an ISO certification logo on their business, they will have to adhere to these standards. So we’ll have to see what happens.
I think this is a good idea.
Too many manufacturers will lower QC in order to make a buck.
Standards likely will weed out those to a larger degree.