A New Father's Holiday Wish is for Toys to Be Tested to Ensure They're Safe for Young Children

Maine Sunday Telegram
Sunday, December 23, 2007
by MPA Executive Director Jesse Graham

Information from the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine is a start, but vigilance is needed.

Two weeks ago my wife gave birth to our first child. Welcoming this exciting addition to our family has been fun. Keeping him warm, dry and fed have been round-the-clock tasks.

With the holidays approaching and the gifts already arriving, another concern added to my worries is where are his new toys coming from and are they safe?

On Dec. 5, the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, a coalition of organizations working to protect Maine families from toxic chemicals, released chemical testing results for more than 1,200 popular children's toys.

Of the products tested, 35 percent contained lead (with 17 percent exceeding the federal recall standard for lead paint!); 47 percent were made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC typically contains hormone-disrupting chemicals known as phthalates.); and nearly 3 percent contained the known carcinogen and toxic metal cadmium.

The results are available online at www.healthytoys.org, a Web site launched to better inform parents and holiday toy purchasers, and to draw attention to the broken chemical-safety system that allows thousands of hazardous and untested chemicals to be used in children's products.

Unlike the European Union, the United States doesn't require businesses to minimize the risks posed by toxic chemicals.

Despite the use of hundreds of toxic chemicals in the manufacturing of products that our children put in their mouths, play with or wear, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has been given little authority and virtually no resources to regulate or restrict these chemicals.

Lead-contaminated toys from China are just the tip of the iceberg. The real problem is that there is virtually no government oversight of chemicals used to manufacture toys and children's products – even those made in the United States.

The risks are real. Babies and young children are the most vulnerable to toxic chemicals since their brains and bodies are still developing and because they frequently put toys and hands into their mouths. We shouldn't pretend that there is a safe level of exposure. Research shows that even low-level exposure to toxic chemicals can have lifelong impacts. Toxic chemicals have no place in children's toys, period.

It's unfair that parents cannot trust that the toys they are purchasing this holiday season are safe. With all of the other concerns I have as a new parent I shouldn't have to worry that my child is being poisoned by his toys.

Even as a consumer who is aware of the problem, I can't go down to a store and know which toys are hazardous and which aren't. It's impossible to tell by looking, and there's no requirement for manufacturers to disclose what chemicals are in them.

To be fair, toy retailers and business owners are stuck in the middle, too. The last thing a responsible business owner wants to do is provide products that harm children in any way. But without a requirement that manufacturers test and label the products they sell, retailers have no way of knowing what chemicals are in them either.

I'm thankful there is now a place to go for information about many common toys and the chemicals they contain, but it's hardly the solution.

Policy changes are needed to keep toxic chemicals out of products intended for our kids.

It's time for the state and federal governments to act to protect the health of our children. As parents, we shouldn't have to worry that the toys we buy our kids will actually harm them.

The good news is that safe toys are possible. Many of the products (40 percent) tested did not contain any lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury or PVC, including many made in China. But even so, we can't shop our way out of this problem.

The healthytoys.org database is an important and helpful tool, but real change will only come when chemicals are tested and regulated as they should be so our kids aren't put at risk every time they pick up their favorite toy.

— Special to the Press Herald

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jesse Graham is executive director of Maine People's Alliance in Portland.

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