There was a festive feeling among consumer advocates when Congress passed legislation over the summer that outlaws the use of phthalates -- chemicals some fear may cause reproductive defects -- in toys. But ever-inventive toymakers have a holiday surprise: a flood of phthalate-ridden toys hitting stores just in time for holiday shopping.
The ban enacted by Congress doesn't take effect until Feb. 10, so toymakers and distributors have their elves working overtime to clear out their backlog of toys containing the chemical additives that make hard plastics more flexible.
Consumer advocates and some members of Congress are outraged that toymakers and retailers are rushing to sell the contaminated toys rather than destroy them. Congress never meant to "encourage fire sales in toy stores," Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.) told The Wall Street Journal.
ExxonMobil is the world's largest manufacturer of diisononyl phthalate (DINP), the type of phthalate often found in toys.
In July, when Congress was considering the legislation, Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. Public Interest Research Group consumer program director, pleaded with lawmakers to "guarantee America's littlest consumers a safe holiday season" by passing the measure. Mierzwinski did not foresee that Congress would leave toymakers with one last chance to flood the market before the ban took effect.
ExxonMobil lobbied hard against the phthalate ban. It is the world's largest manufacturer of diisononyl phthalate (DINP), the type of phthalate found in many children's products.
Toy industry representatives say that many companies are small and operate on very thin margins and simply can't afford to scrap tens of thousands of toys. Others note that there has never been a definite determination that phthalates are dangerous.
Evidence against phthalates is mounting, however. Researchers say at least 100 studies have found reproductive toxicity in the chemicals. In one study, male offspring of female rodents who had been exposed to phthalates had genital abnormalities and generally looked more like female rodents.
Dr. Diana Zuckerman of the National Research Center for Women and Families said some phthalates can potentially make boys less masculine, decrease the size of their penises and increase the risk of testicular cancer. In adult men it can result in infertility, she said.
In Denmark, a recent study found decreased levels of testoserone in male babies whose mothers' milk contained phthalates.
The European Union banned the chemicals in 2005. That prompted most large toy manufacturers to switch to alternative substances. But many toys and children's products are made by small manufacturers -- many in China and other Asian nations -- who may or may not follow foreign governments' guidelines.
In the U.S., California, Washington and Vermont have passed laws banning the sale of toys containing phthalates. But, like the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other government agencies, the states have little or no field staff to examine products on store shelves.
What to do?
What's a parent to do? Unfortunately, it's not easy to determine the exact contents of manufactured products. Most toys don't list their ingredients and even distributors and retailers are often in the dark about a given item's chemical make-up.
In the U.S., many large retailers, including Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart have said they are clearing their shelves of products containing phthalates. That leaves parents and other holiday shoppers little recourse but to trust large retailers or revert to gifts that are less likely to produce squeals of delight. A nice sweater, maybe?
