Toxins in our Toys

Results from the annual Toy Safety Survey by PIRG

There are toxins in that bottle, balloon and hoola hoop. If it’s made with any plastic, of any color, texture, strength, or flexibilty, it has toxins in it. Please check out the annual Toy Safety Survey from the non-profit US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

The following is only a part of their survey:

Toxic Chemicals in Toys

Some toys can pose hidden hazards, exposing children to dangerous chemicals that are linked to serious health problems. We found:

• Some children’s jewelry may contain high levels of lead, which can cause developmental delays or even death in children exposed to this heavy metal. We found four examples of jewelry on store shelves containing lead at levels ranging from 1.8% to 34% of the item’s weight. CPSC has recalled more than 150 million pieces of leadladen children’s jewelry since 2004, but CPSC needs to do more to keep this jewelry off the shelves in the first place by enacting and enforcing requirements for jewelry manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers to test their products for lead.
• Manufacturers are selling play cosmetic sets that include nail polish containgin toxic chemicals, such as toluene and xylene. Since children often put their hands in their mouths, nail polish offers a direct route of exposure. CPSC should team up with the Food and Drug Administration to require manufactureres to stop using toxic chemcials in cosmetids marketed for children.
• Last year, we commissioned laboratory tests of eight soft plastic toys labeled as not containing phthalates, a class of chemicals linked to reporoductive defects and other health problems. This year, we again tested 10 toys labeled as “phthalate-free”. Of the 10 toys tested, two contained detectable levels of phthalates. Although this may be better news for consumers, nothing in the law has changed to hold toymakers accountable to the “phthalate-free” label.

CPSC should ban phthalates in toys and other products intended for children under five and work with the Federal Trade Commission to endure that toys labeled “phthalate-free” do not contain phthalates.

Please note that the CPSC does not test all toys, and not all toys on store shelves meet CPSC standards. Their report includes only a sample of potentially hazardous toys. Examine toys carefully for potential dangers before you make a purchase, and report unsafe toys or toy-related injuries to the CPSC.

The toxins are called “phthalates” (pronounced 'thalates') and bisphenol A, (BPA). Generally used as a softener for plastics and vinyl and to make shatterproof and clear plastic. They are also known as endocrine disrupters, which means that they are quite capable of:

• interfering with hormones that regulate masculinity
• interfering with hormones that regulate femininity
• causing prostate cancer
• causing breast cancer
• causing a birth defect of abnormal genitals
• causing early puberty
• causing obesity
• causing altered genital development in boys
• causing incomplete testicular descent
• causing lower sperm counts in men
• causing DNA damage in sperm

This PIRG article is informative, and their website has greater informatino. Please check the list of companines that are providing phthalate-free toys. Some companies ave changed their manufacturing processes and some have not. This article also states for you to examine the toys yourself, which is not going to help you with the toxins, they are a continual release gas.

The following few paragraphs are straight from the phthalates.org website. Please read between the lines, this company is leading you to believe that your life would be much less interesting and much more complicated if you didn’t have phthalates in it. I also see that my life would be less colorful and less fun as well. “Used for nearly a century”, this statement implies that if there was something unsafe here, surely we would have hear about it by now. Also read that phthalates resemble vegetable oil, the implication is that is must be safe life vegetable oil if it looks like it. “Does not readily evaporate”, means that is does evaporate, just not quickly. And that they do break down rapidly in a living organism . . . does a baby’s mouth count? To make you feel better about the phthalates in your purchases, you are informed about all of the 'valuable' aspects this chemical has brought, those being: color-fast, durable, low-maintenance, perfume fixative, evaporation retardant, flexible nail polish, medicinal time-release coating, etc. Here’s their first four paragraphs:

“Although you never see them, phthalates play an important part in making everyday life more convenient, colorful and fun. Thanks to their varying characteristics, this family of workhorse chemicals makes a wide range of consumer and industrial products work better for us.

Dozens of phthalates have been developed over the years, and some have been in use for nearly a century. The dozen or so types in general use today have some traits in common – they are clear liquids resembling common vegetable oil, have little or no smell, and do not readily evaporate. They all break down rapidly in the environment and in living organisms.

But the similarities end when it comes to the diverse jobs they do. The larger-molecule phthalates are used primarily to make vinyl plastic flexible, in everything from your child’s toys to your kitchen floor. They make possible the color-fast, durable, flexible, low-maintenance qualities that make vinyl so valuable and widely used in building materials, autos, toys and even medical devices.

The smaller-molecule phthalates do many different jobs. Some act as a fixative for perfume, slowing down evaporation and making the scent linger longer. Consumer and industrial applications range from making nail polish flexible and screwdriver handles less brittle to helping make the time-release coating on numerous pharmaceutical products. In addition, they help make lubricants, adhesives, weather stripping and safety glass. The list is long.”

Indigo Earth Notes: Not once do I read that phthalates are considered safe. Or what may be considered a safe level. This chemical is used in products that we all have or want, and in products that do actually have serious safety benefits, like safety glass. But this doesn’t imply that I want it in my children’s toys or evaporating into my bottled water. Again, we are never given all the information that we need to know in order to pursue a healthier life. Withholding vital information is the same as lying.