The short answer
A cured Oslek LED Hardwax Oil floor has been independently tested to EN 71-3, the European toy safety standard, at Category III, which is the strictest of its three categories. None of the nineteen regulated elements was detected. That covers the floor a child crawls on. The separate question, and the one most finishes answer badly, is what goes into the air while the floor is curing. Oslek contains 6.4 grams of VOC per litre. Osmo Polyx-Oil, which is also rated to EN 71-3, states up to 500.
If you are standing in a room deciding what to put on the floor, you are probably asking one question and you should be asking two.
Two questions, not one
Almost everything written about safe floor finishes answers the first question and quietly skips the second.
The first question is what comes out of the finished floor. A child crawls on it, sits on it, puts a hand flat on it and then puts the hand in their mouth. A dog lies on it. That is a question about the hardened film, and there is a European standard that measures it.
The second question is what goes into the air while the floor is getting hard. Every finish that dries in air does so because something is evaporating out of it. That something is solvent. It is the smell, it is the reason the windows stay open, and it is the reason people are asked to stay out of the room.
A finish can pass the first test and still put half a litre of solvent per litre of product into the room. The two questions are not related, and passing one tells you nothing about the other.
What EN 71-3 actually tests
EN 71-3:2019+A1:2021 is the migration of certain elements test, issued under the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC. It is not a test of how nice a material is. It takes the material, puts it into a solution that simulates stomach acid, and measures how much of nineteen regulated elements comes back out.
The standard has three categories, and the category matters more than the pass. Category I is dry material, Category II is liquid or sticky material, and Category III is scraped-off material. Category III has the lowest limits because it assumes a child has worked a piece loose and swallowed it. For a floor finish, Category III is the one that fits.
Oslek LED Hardwax Oil was tested at Category III by Eurofins Product Testing on 30 September 2025, report 392-2025-00349303. It passed, and none of the nineteen elements was detected.
| Element | Category III limit, mg/kg | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Aluminium Al | 28,130 | Not detected |
| Antimony Sb | 560 | Not detected |
| Arsenic As | 47 | Not detected |
| Barium Ba | 18,750 | Not detected |
| Boron B | 15,000 | Not detected |
| Cadmium Cd | 17 | Not detected |
| Chromium III Cr III | 460 | Not detected |
| Chromium VI Cr VI | 0.053 | Not detected |
| Cobalt Co | 130 | Not detected |
| Copper Cu | 7,700 | Not detected |
| Lead Pb | 23 | Not detected |
| Manganese Mn | 15,000 | Not detected |
| Mercury Hg | 94 | Not detected |
| Nickel Ni | 930 | Not detected |
| Selenium Se | 460 | Not detected |
| Strontium Sr | 56,000 | Not detected |
| Tin Sn | 180,000 | Not detected |
| Organic tin Org Sn | 12 | Not detected |
| Zinc Zn | 46,000 | Not detected |
Chromium VI is the line worth looking at twice. Its Category III limit is 0.053 milligrams per kilogram, which is roughly four hundred times stricter than the limit for lead. It was not detected either.
The question EN 71-3 does not ask
Here is the part that gets left out. Osmo’s own UK product page lists Polyx-Oil Original as "suitable for children’s toys (EN71.3)". That is their claim, and we have no reason to doubt it. On the cured film, both products are rated.
Osmo’s own technical data sheet also states a VOC content of up to 500 grams per litre. At a stated density of 0.88 to 0.95 grams per cubic centimetre, that is more than half the weight of the tin leaving as solvent, into the room, over the days it takes to cure.
Oslek contains 6.4 grams of VOC per litre, which is the same figure as 99.4 percent VOC free stated the other way round. It hardens under a 395nm LED lamp rather than by evaporation, so there is almost nothing in it that needs to leave in order for the floor to be finished. We have set out what that number means, and what the law allows, on what 6.4 grams per litre actually means.
This is the whole argument on one page, and it is the reason we keep saying the number rather than the percentage. We have written about it in more detail in clearing the air on VOCs, and compared the published figures across seven finishes on our product comparison pages.
What this means for a real room
A nursery or a bedroom
With an air-cured oil, the practical problem is the gap between touch dry and fully cured. Osmo puts that at eight to ten hours and two to three weeks respectively. The room is walkable long before it is finished, and ventilation is advised throughout. On a nursery that usually means moving a child out, or doing the floor before they move in.
Oslek is hard as the lamp passes over it. There is no drying period to plan around and no solvent smell to clear, so the room can be back in use the same day.
A floor a child crawls on and a dog runs on
The oil was tested to AS 4586 with the wet pendulum, on a coated 15mm engineered oak plank, and returned a slip resistance value of 36. That is classification P3. The wet pendulum uses the same British Pendulum apparatus that BS 7976 uses here, so the number is readable in the UK even though the P3 label is Australian.
Cleaning it afterwards
An oiled floor is maintained with an oil-friendly cleaner rather than a general purpose detergent, which strips the wax. Wax & Clean is the one we make for it. In a house with a crawling child the relevant point is that it is a weekly mop rather than a solvent-based treatment.
Three tests, and what each one does not cover
There are three independent reports on this oil. All three are on the product page as downloads. Each one answers a narrow question, and we would rather set out the edges of each than let you assume they cover more than they do.
What we cannot tell you
We would rather say this than have you find out afterwards
- The EN 71-3 report covers the tested sample, not the whole range. The report names the sample as Oslek LED Hardwax Oil and states that the results are valid for the tested sample. Pigments are the most likely source of regulated elements, so we publish the report against the clear oil and the packs built on it, and not against the coloured oils or the pigments.
- We cannot state a fire classification. The AS ISO 9239.1 result of 4.7 kilowatts per square metre clears the Cfl threshold of 4.5, and smoke at 14 percent-minutes is comfortably within s1. But a Euroclass also requires the EN ISO 11925-2 ignitability test, and that has not been done. Until it is, there is no Cfl-s1 to quote and we will not imply one.
- There is no pet-specific testing. EN 71-3 is written around children. We are not aware of an equivalent standard for animals, and we have not had one run. The two questions on this page apply equally to a dog lying on the floor, but the certificate says children.
- The slip and fire tests were run on coated oak, not on the oil alone. That is the right sample for a floor, and the wrong sample if you are coating something else.
Frequently asked questions
Is hardwax oil safe for children and pets?
A cured hardwax oil floor is a hardened film, and the question that matters is what can come out of that film if a child scrapes it and puts it in their mouth. That is exactly what EN 71-3 measures. Oslek LED Hardwax Oil was tested at Category III, the strictest of the three categories, and none of the nineteen regulated elements was detected. The separate question is what the finish releases into the air while it is curing, and that depends on its VOC content rather than on any toy safety test.
What does EN 71-3 actually test?
EN 71-3 is the migration of certain elements test under the Toy Safety Directive. It puts the material into a solution that simulates stomach acid and measures how much of nineteen regulated elements comes out, including lead, cadmium, chromium VI, arsenic and mercury. Category III applies to scraped-off coating material, which is the category that fits a floor finish a child could scratch.
Is Oslek safer than Osmo or Fiddes?
On the cured film, we would not claim that. Osmo's own product page states that Polyx-Oil is suitable for children's toys under EN71.3, so on that measure they are both rated. The difference is what each one puts into the room on the way to being cured. Osmo's data sheet states a maximum of 500 grams of VOC per litre. Oslek contains 6.4.
How long before a child can go back in the room?
With Oslek, as soon as the lamp has passed over the floor. It hardens under 395nm LED light rather than by solvent evaporating, so there is no drying period to wait out and no solvent smell to clear. With an air-cured oil you are working to its data sheet, which for Osmo Polyx-Oil is eight to ten hours to touch dry and two to three weeks to full hardness, with ventilation advised throughout.
Does the test cover the coloured oils as well?
No, and we would rather say so. The Eurofins report names the tested sample as Oslek LED Hardwax Oil and states that the results are valid for the tested sample. Pigments are where regulated elements would be most likely to come from, so we have deliberately published the report only against the clear oil and the packs built on it. If you need a pigmented colour covered, ask us and we will chase the testing.
Is the floor slippery for a crawling child or a dog?
It was tested to AS 4586 with the wet pendulum and returned a slip resistance value of 36, which is classification P3. That test uses the same British Pendulum apparatus BS 7976 uses in the UK, so the number carries over even though the P3 label is Australian. The sample was a coated 15mm engineered oak plank rather than the oil on its own.
Test it on your own timber before you commit to a floor.
Order a Sample PouchSee the oil and the reports