China pledged to continue “perfecting” the supervision of its toy industry as part of efforts to ensure the safety of the nation’s products.

The government pays “great attention” to the safety of toys because China is a large producer and exporter of the products, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its website today.

Safety issues with Chinese-made products including toys that contained lead, milk tainted with the chemical melamine and corrosive drywall have spurred domestic concerns that the scandals may lead to social unrest and also led the U.S. and European Union to increase scrutiny of the nation’s exports. Chinese toy exports increased 29.4 percent last year to $10.1 billion, according to government data.

The requirements used to assess the safety of toys produced in China are “exactly the same” as international ones, the quality administration said in today’s statement.

Tests conducted in the second quarter this year found 20 out of 242 toys selected at random from markets in China failed to meet national standards, the administration said separately. Three of the toys were found to contain lead, chromium or both metals, according to the May 27 statement.

Scrutiny of the safety of children’s products has increased in China since milk powder tainted with melamine, a chemical used in making plastics, killed at least six babies in 2008. China last year named Vice Premier Li Keqiang the head of a commission formed to specifically enforce food safety rules.

This increased scrutiny comes as China’s one-child policy has contributed to a drop in the number of children. The nation’s latest once-in-a-decade census showed that children under the age of 14 accounted for 16.6 percent of the population last year, down from 22.89 percent in 2000.

China’s Ministry of Health said yesterday it will ban the use of the chemical Bisphenol A in the production of infant feeding bottles from June 1, which is international Children’s Day. The chemical may cause premature sexual development in children, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.