What the???
Honest to goodness, pointing fingers at China and here we are not even looking at the mess in our own backyard. You know what they say, best defense is a good offense.
Phthalates are bombarding us. Lotions, powders and in our children’s toys. Phthalates are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can affect the development of the male fetus and are also associated with early puberty in girls. They are not identified on cosmetic labels but may be included under the catch all terms of “fragrance” or “parfum”. The more phthalate products used, the higher the concentration in babies. The use of lotions, shampoos and baby powders are most likely to result in exposure to phthalates.
And they are in most of our soft plastic baby toys….
Check out the latest article on the front cover of today’s Ottawa Citizen – www.OttawaCitizen.com
The article’s text appears below:
Toxic chemicals found in three-
quarters of soft plastic toys in
Canada
Additive banned in Europe known to harm children
By Sarah Schmidt December 8, 2008
Despite a decade-old voluntary ban in North America, Health Canada tests found three-quarters of soft plastic toys and items for young children for sale in Canada contained toxic chemical additives known to cause reproductive harm in children.
Phthalates, used to soften plastic toys, were present at elevated levels in the department’s sampling of 54 of 72 products for children ages three and under made of the widely used plastic known as polyvinyl chloride. They included toys that are likely to be mouthed, like bath toys, and items designed for infants to help in feeding and sleeping.
The levels ranged from 0.2 to 39.9 per cent by weight of the polyvinyl chloride in the products.
All these toys and children’s products with added phthalates for sale in Canada have been banned by the European Union since 1999, and will soon be banned in the United States, where a ban modelled on the European prohibition comes into effect in February. In these jurisdictions, phthalates concentrations cannot exceed 0.1 per cent.
Health Canada conducted the market survey in the last year to find out whether toys banned in Europe were still readily available in Canada, and “understand what manufacturers are using instead of phthalates,” according to minutes of a meeting of Health Canada officials released under Access to Information.
The department declined to release further details about brands and retailers, but emphasized no enforcement action was necessary because the products are legal in Canada.
“What these results mean is that many toys on sale in Canada are illegal to sell in the European Union and George Bush’s government has said that they are too toxic to be on sale in the U.S. as of February. So why do Canadian kids deserve less protection than George Bush is giving to American children?” asked Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence.
Phthalates are not chemically bound to the plastic toys to which they’re added, so they continuously leach from the products. The process speeds up when young children mouth or suck on items like rubber ducks and other bath toys.
Scientists have long known that large doses of some phthalates can cause cancer, but low-level exposure to these endocrine-disrupting chemicals blocks production of the male sex hormone testosterone.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say this is a crisis for Canadian kids. The Canadian market is going to be the recipient of an avalanche of nasty, toxic toys that have been rejected by the rest of the industrialized world, starting this Christmas season,” said Mr. Smith, co-author of the forthcoming book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health.
A decade ago, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada called on the toy industry to remove phthalates in products intended for children under three years old that are likely to be mouthed or chewed. The voluntary ban led to the removal of phthalates from such products as teethers and rattles, but not other toys and items for young children.
Some toy manufacturers, including Hasbro and Mattel Inc., stopped using phthalates in their toy lines after the law changed in Europe. And more recently, retail giants Toys R Us, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sears Canada have announced that their shelves in North America will not be stocked with toys containing phthalates in 2009.
But other toy manufacturers continue to use phthalates because alternatives are more costly. And they will be able to sell their products elsewhere in Canada after the U.S. market is closed to them in the new year.
In Canada, a proposal to ban phthalates is more narrow, and will not take effect any time soon. Consultations on a Health Canada proposal to ban one type of phthalate, known as DEHP, from products that young children commonly put in their mouths ended in September 2007, but the department has yet to publish draft regulations.
Harold Chizick, spokesman for the Canadian Toy Association, said the industry is “moving away” from phthalates, and will follow the rules established by Health Canada.
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