‌When choosing a schoolbag for their children, many parents focus on style, capacity, weight, and carrying comfort, but easily overlook material safety. Some schoolbags use transparent plastic, artificial leather, decorative soft materials, and plastic-covered zipper pulls, among other components, which may contain phthalate plasticizers.

Phthalates are commonly used to increase the flexibility of plastics and are typical endocrine disruptors. For children who are still growing and developing, long-term exposure to school supplies with excessive levels of phthalates may affect their endocrine system and growth. In recent years, national random inspections have also found that schoolbags contain excessive levels of phthalates.

To help parents choose safer schoolbags, in May 2025, Toxics-Free Corps conducted a search on five platforms—JD.com, Taobao, Pinduoduo, Douyin Mall, and Kuaishou Mall—using "primary school student schoolbags" as the keyword. The results were sorted by sales volume, and the top 10 schoolbags with plastic parts on each platform were selected, totaling 50 samples. This survey focused on schoolbags suitable for primary school students and commissioned a qualified third-party testing agency to test for phthalate content. Two to three different plastic parts were selected from each schoolbag as sampling points, with a focus on testing the phthalate content in accessible plastic parts.

Survey results: Nearly 40% of samples exceeded phthalate limits; high sales volume does not equate to safety

Test results showed that 19 out of 50 primary school students' schoolbags exceeded the standard for phthalates, with an overall exceedance rate of 38%.

Figure: Phthalate exceedance rate in random samples of primary school students' schoolbags in 2025 (by platform)

In terms of the number of times the standard was exceeded, the average number of times the standard was exceeded by the 19 samples was about 133 times, and the highest number of times the standard was exceeded by 306 times.

Figure: Distribution of phthalate exceedance multiples in random samples of primary school students' schoolbags in 2025

It's important to note that high sales volume does not equate to high safety. Of the 19 samples that exceeded the standards, 14 had sales figures displayed on the webpage exceeding 10,000, including one schoolbag with phthalates exceeding the standard by 77 times, whose online page listed sales as reaching 1.014 million. When purchasing schoolbags, consumers should not only consider sales volume and reviews, but also pay attention to the materials, applicable standards, and product labeling.

Image: Screenshot of a webpage and test report of a backpack sample with over 1 million units sold that exceeded phthalate standards.

Risky components: Problems often lie hidden in plastic parts and decorative materials

Looking at the specific components that exceeded the standards, the sampling points in this test included zipper pull wrapping plastic, artificial leather, transparent plastic, decorative soft materials, and backpack strap buckles. The results showed that the phthalate exceedance points were mainly concentrated in transparent plastic, artificial leather, and decorative soft materials.

This illustrates that the risks in schoolbags don't necessarily come from the main fabric, but are often hidden in accessible plastic parts and decorative materials. Parents should pay particular attention to schoolbags with large areas of transparent plastic, artificial leather trim, or soft plastic hanging ornaments or decorations when purchasing schoolbags.

Figure: Number of spots with excessive levels of different materials in primary school students' schoolbags during random inspections in 2025.

Standards Observation: Some products have discrepancies between their "applicable scenarios" and the applicable standards

China's mandatory national standard GB 21027-2020 "General Safety Requirements for School Supplies" stipulates that the total content of 3 phtalates (DEHP, DBP and BBP) in accessible plastic parts of school supplies used by students under the age of 14 should not exceed 1000 mg/kg.

In this survey, 82% of the samples were labeled with the applicable standards in accordance with the law. However, it was also found that some schoolbags claimed to be suitable for primary school students, but the applicable standards on the actual products were inconsistent with their intended use, and some even used standards without phthalate limits. For example, a primary school schoolbag with phthalate levels exceeding the limit by 181 times was advertised as suitable for "primary school" on the website, but the actual applicable standard was QB/T 1333-2018 "Backpacks and Handbags", rather than the relevant safety standards for student supplies.

Image: Web page description, physical labeling standards, and test report of a sample schoolbag that exceeds the standard.

This indicates that while some products may attract consumers online by using usage scenarios such as "primary school" and "students," the actual implementation standards fail to meet the safety requirements for school supplies.

Price Observation: Low Price Is Not an Inevitable Reason for Exceeding Standards

Price comparisons show that the average price of compliant samples is approximately 114 yuan, while the average price of exceeding samples is approximately 68 yuan, with compliant samples generally being more expensive. However, within the price range of 0-100 yuan, the price difference between compliant and exceeding samples is not significant.

Figure: Price distribution of primary school students' schoolbags that met and exceeded standards in a random inspection in 2025.

This shows that achieving the standard for phthalate content does not necessarily require high costs. The key lies in whether enterprises use qualified raw materials and whether they establish effective supply chain management and quality testing mechanisms.

Origin observation: Samples exceeding standards were concentrated in some of the nominal origin areas.

Looking at the nominal origin of the samples exceeding the standard, among the 19 samples exceeding phthalate standard, 12 were nominally from Hunan Province, 2 from Hebei Province, and 5 had no origin information. Further analysis revealed that among the 50 samples sampled, 22 were nominally from Hunan Province, with most specifically from Shaodong City, Shaoyang City; of these, 10 samples met the phthalate standard and 12 exceeded it.

Figure: Distribution of nominal origins of primary school students' schoolbags found to contain excessive phthalates in 2025 random inspections.

This result does not mean that all schoolbag products in a particular region have problems, but it suggests that areas with concentrated production of such products need to strengthen raw material control, production process testing, and standard enforcement. For regulatory authorities, products with a high concentration of production locations can also serve as key leads for subsequent spot checks and quality rectification.

Our Recommendations

Toxics-Free Corps suggests that e-commerce platforms should strengthen random inspections of student schoolbags, focusing on the phthalate content in plastic parts, and require merchants to display product implementation standards, physical labels, and compliant quality inspection reports on product pages to ensure that the page advertising is consistent with the actual implementation standards.

Brand owners and manufacturers should strictly adhere to relevant standards. Schoolbags sold to students under 14 years old should meet safety requirements such as GB 21027-2020. They should also strengthen testing for restricted substances in raw materials and promptly recall any substandard products already on the market. Market supervision departments should strengthen random inspections of schoolbags and the supervision of Three-no products, dispose of substandard products according to law, and collaborate with e-commerce platforms to improve the product access review mechanism for schoolbags. For consumers, when purchasing school bags, they should not only consider sales volume, appearance, and price, but also check product labels, applicable age, implementation standards, and material information. Schoolbags, which children use every day, should not only be attractive and comfortable to carry, but also safe.