Your child and the children around you are priceless, and we do everything we can to keep them safe and healthy. Parents and caregivers educate themselves on child safety, and use common sense when deciding what is healthy and harmful for a child. Let’s take a short test. Would you send your children into a construction site to play, knowing what harms could come to them? Never! How about feeding them from a floor home to muddy boots, paw prints and microbes? Of course not. Would you allow your child to play with the latest popular plastic toy, eat out of a glazed ceramic bowl, or use a teething ring to ease gum soreness while teething? If you said yes, you may want to read about how this could cause major problems – even death – in your child.
What are Toxic Toys?
The term ‘toxic toys‘ refers to a subset of toys that have been found in recent years to contain high levels of harmful chemicals. These chemicals are found in every step of the process of toymaking, from the molds themselves to the accessory pieces, right up to the paint and decals used on the surface of the toy to decorate it. The cautionary ‘May be harmful if swallowed’ warning should no longer refer solely to a choking hazard.
Due to rising production costs all over the world, some shortcuts have been made to save manufacturers time and money, resulting in the production of these toxic toys. The main cause of toxicity in toxic toys is the presence of harmful chemicals like lead, phthalates, and Bisphenol A, or BPA.
Humans are exposed to these chemicals on a daily basis – in car interiors, shower curtains, glazed pottery, batteries, and MANY more. Our bodies are typically able to detoxify themselves with little to no adverse effects. However, as with most cases, infants and children are not as equipped to do this, as they are still developing all the necessary agents to combat antigens and harmful invaders to their systems. Let’s look a little more closely at the types of harms threatening children’s health and well being.
Lead – Friend Or Foe?
Long viewed as an indispensable metal, one of the first mined in North America, lead’s most useful contribution to modern innovation has been its application in the manufacture of lead-acid storage batteries. It has also been used as a soldering agent, as well as in plumbing, and its vibration-reducing characteristics have made it useful in heavy metal construction vehicles. It has many compound derivatives, one of which is known as white lead, a pigment used in paints, putty and ceramics. This has been used extensively in house paint. High levels of lead are also common in soil, especially near roads and highways, or where construction involving lead paint has occurred and chips leaked into the ground.
It’s been known for decades that lead-based paint is dangerous to all humans, especially children. When lead-based paint chips off, the paint chips can find their way into curious hands and mouths, and the sweet taste of the compound attracts the child to ingest more. The build-up of lead in the body causes lead poisoning.
Facts About Lead Poisoning
Lead acts as a neurotoxin when in the human body, causing all kinds of defects. Children are particularly susceptible, as their central nervous systems aren’t yet fully developed. Because they are similar in charge and size, lead ions replace iron, zinc and calcium ions in many overlapping biochemical pathways. When these ions are replaced by lead in certain enzymes, activities like growth and behavior regulation are affected. As Calcium also plays a major role in the function of neurotransmitters, the vehicles used by the brain to send signals throughout the body, this interruption causes major neurological defects, including central nervous system disorders like wrist drop, learning disabilities, speech and language defects.
Lead has also been found to disrupt the normal biochemistry in the kidney, brain and bones by causing excessive production of some proteins whose role is to bind specifically to other molecules. This causes harm to bones and teeth production, learning disabilities and reduced mental capacity, even renal failure.
A resurgence of lead-based paint has been found in toxic toys manufactured outside of the US in recent years, and the levels of lead in our children are rising. The Center for Disease Control has released data showing that 6% of 1-2 year old children have toxic levels of lead in their blood. Many believe this is a modest estimate, and this number will rise.
Phthalates and BPA
Many innovations have been made in the world of plastics over the last decades, and we consumers have benefited highly from them. However, the magic these plastics offer and the methods used to produce the desired results has left a stream of questions about the effects of these chemicals on the recipient – namely, children.
Phthalates are types of plastics manufactured in a way that retains strength and resiliency while allowing pliability. Applications include teething rings, pacifiers, and many flexible plastic toys on the market. Common types of phthalates include dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP). Phthalates are bound to other materials, like polyvinyl chloride (PVC), to soften the material. It has been found that as much as 40% of phthalates leach out of the finished product when handled by children, much of this through chewing and sucking on the materials.
BPA, or bisphenol A, has been used widely in the making of plastic bottles – including baby bottles, electronics, automobile parts, compact discs, even in resealable plastic bags and medical devices, and yes – plastic toys. The National Institute of Health (NIH) has conducted animal studies that suggest that once ingested, BPA may imitate estrogen and other hormones.
Phthalates have been found to cause major problems in fetal development, as well as early childhood development. Dr. Shanna Swan, director of the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, in New York, conducted a study in which urine samples from 134 pregnant women from multiple areas in the US were tested for the presence of phthalates. A correlation was found among the women who had higher levels of phthalates in their urine who gave birth to boys with reduced ano-genital distance (AGD) – this shortened distance between the anus and the scrotum is a key indicator of lowered testosterone levels. Similar studies have found correlations between the presence of phthalates in pregnant women and births of male children suffering from hypospadias, an abnormal condition in males in which the urethra opens on the under surface of the penis. Studies have also linked phthalates present in pregnancy, infancy and childhood to interrupted sexual development due to the impediment of testosterone production, lowered sperm count, exacerbation of allergies, and premature breast development in young females.
The NIH released a report on Apr. 14, 2008 concluding that there is concern that fetuses, infants and children exposed to BPA may be at increased risk for early-onset puberty as well as prostate and breast cancer. Other studies have found links between BPA and pancreatic changes promoting insulin resistance, altered thyroid regulation, structural damage to the brain and hyperactivity, just to name a few.
What Is Being Done?
The recent increased presence of these chemicals in children’s is causing a stir, both with consumer safety and health authorities. There has been a 67% drop in toxic toys containing lead since 2007, and the other chemicals need to follow suit.
Legislation has been slow to ban BPA and phthalates from production, and as more studies are conducted, more research is being sifted through to decide if this danger is real – much of this is due to lobbying by the manufacturers themselves who don’t want to stop using a cheap ingredient to make their products. In August 2008, then-President Bush signed into law the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which partially addressed the concerns of importing toxic toys. State legislation has followed, California leading the way with its ban on products made with phthalates becoming effective in January 2009. Unfortunately, there is fine print, and under much of the legislation is the caveat that while manufacturers can no longer PRODUCE toxic toys containing these chemicals, they are allowed to sell off their already made inventory, thus flooding the market with reduced price toxic toys that consumers may be at higher risk of purchasing, due to the current economic downturn.
There are a number of manufacturers who have joined the cause in efforts to promote safe manufacturing of products. Disney and Mattel are two major producers who have vowed not to produce toxic toys by making public commitments to phase out toys and products containing DEHP. Toys R Us and Wal-Mart have also agreed not to sell children’s products containing phthalates.
How Can I Tell If I Have a Toxic Toy?
The only 100% fool-proof way to tell is to have the toy tested for the presence of these chemicals. Fortunately, this testing has been done on many toys, and lists are available. You can also check recall lists and the news. New toy conformity certification labels found on packaging states that is has been tested to government standard. The US has higher restrictions than some foreign countries, like China, therefore buying American greatly reduces the risk purchasing toxic toys.
As awareness is heightened about these dangerous chemicals, the hope is that the presence of toxic toys will be reduced as time goes on. Legislation is catching up, and the science is disproving theories of the safety of these chemicals. For the safety of all infants and children, it is our duty to remain vigilant in the efforts to suspend activities related to producing toxic toys and plastics.
Becky R is a freelance writer in her spare time. When she’s not busy entertaining herself with the latest and greatest products, or blogging about her product testing and life in general, she’s doing her part to fill the internet with entertaining and knowledgeable information. She is also co-founder of Mekimare, a group of individuals devoted to providing honest reviews of products and techniques for every walk of life. Check it out at http://www.mekimare.com.
**If you’d like to see this information along with accompanying supplemental research, please visit my lens about Toxic Toys.**
