The General Requirement on the Safety of Students' Stationery, China's first national standard on goods used by students, was formally put into force on April 1, 2008.

The General Requirement is said to be applicable to things used by young students, including water colors, erasers, writing instruments, rulers, schoolbags, scissors, and stationery boxes. It sets limits on the maximum content of chemicals such as stibium, arsenic, barium, chromium, lead, and mercury on the goods used by students as well as the clarity of color of the paints and textbooks used by them.

Some goods, such as crayons and the liquid used for making corrections, van potentially contain harmful substances which may do harm to students' neural systems and result in attention deficit disorder or a decline in memory function.