FOX19.com and FOX19 News, weather, traffic, and sports for Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky | Environmentalists Warn About Possible Toxins In Toys
Member Center:
There are chemicals in many of your kids' toys that you've probably never even heard of and environmental groups say they're toxic.
They're called phthalates, a family of chemicals not just found in toys, but in dozens of the products we use everyday. But the biggest concern is the effects on the littlest tikes.
Sherri Williams worries about the toys she gives 22-month-old Lillian, with warnings these days about everything from choking to chemicals. She says, "It's just very confusing as a parent to know what toys are safe and which ones aren't. You just tend to give it to them and hope that it's okay."
If you're like Sherri, you've never even heard of phthalates, or know those chemicals are in a lot of toys like the teething and bath toys that Lillian loves. So little is known about them that local pediatrician Dr. Mark McGovern says he can't even remember a parent ever asking about them.
And that's what Environment Ohio's Erin Bowser wants to change. She cites half a dozen government and private studies that she says links phthalates to disturbing health effects. "We do know that exposure to phthalates can cause premature puberty in young girls, it can also lead to premature birth, it can also lead to lower sperm counts in boys and grown men," says Bowser.
Phthalates are used in toys to make the plastic soft and flexible but a handful of companies have voluntarily stopped using the chemicals. Bowser says, "As more and more responsible companies take these out of their products, they're not just showing that there probably is a good reason to do so, but also that it's not very hard to do so."
But a Spokesperson for the Toy Industry Association says the issue is not so cut and dry. Joan Lawrence says, "If there are stories in the news that make parents think that phthalates might be dangerous that puts pressure on retailers to do something. And the problem is, none of it stems from science."
And Lawrence says neither do Environment Ohio's allegations. She says environmental groups are using scare tactics and relying on broad research on other kinds of phthalates, not the kind used in toys. "There is one phthalate that is commonly used in toys and the most extensive study on that phthalate that's used in toys is done by the U.S. federal government the Consumer Product Safety Commission and they found that the phthalate used in toys is perfectly safe for that use," says Lawrence.
And if you don't have kids, you could still be affected by this because you've probably bought or used products with phthalates in them like finger nail polish, flooring and perfumes. As of 2004, about one billion pounds of phthalates were being produced every year.
San Francisco's city council voted to ban the chemical in baby related products, but the toy and chemical companies are appealing.
For more information on phthalates you can visit these websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalates
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml99/99031.html
Companies that have voluntarily removed phthalates from all of their products, according to Environment California:
Brio
Chicco
Evenflo
First Years
Gerber
Mega Bloks/Ritvik
Safety 1st
