Article of the Week

Look before you buy: the danger of toxics in toys

The sequel of the horror movie Child’s Play have a diabolical doll that comes to life when anybody is left all alone at home with the toy as the only company, and attacks him mortally. That doll would seem safer in comparison to the toys you buy your children. For, even with you around and watching, they attack your child, turning him physically underdeveloped and mentally challenged for life.

End of last month, Union Ministry of Health confirmed that the Indian Council of Medical Research got information from an NGO, Toxic Link, that the Chinese toys being sold in the Indian market contain high levels of toxin heavy metals. The NGO had conducted a study in 2006 where it examined toys from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, and reported high levels of cadmium and lead in PVC used in soft toys; 65 per cent of the toys were contaminated with lead in various degrees and 14 per cent were dangerously toxic

More alarming than the news of poisonous toys is the fact that the information had to come from an NGO, and not any standard Government agency assigned the task of ascertaining the quality of toys in the Indian market. What is more callous, the shocking information was disseminated to the public officially a full one year after it was gathered. Without the recent television expose, you wouldn ’t have known of the constant danger your children are exposed to from the gifts you dotingly buy them, as the Government would otherwise not have come under pressure to issue an official statement confirming the health hazard. That your children were unwittingly consuming harmful chemicals while playing with the toys in the past one year and getting, as a result, more physically challenged every passing day did not evoke any urgent reaction from the Government. Having cut a sorry face, the Ministry of a Health says there are three published standards of the BIS. In reality, these so–called “standard” are mere guidelines, not regulations. Sifting through BIS’s voluminous documents that enlist all its laboratory facilities across the country, four electrical labs, 15 mechanical labs and 10 chemical labs were found. The third had no provision for testing the chemical contents of toys.

On asking an official in the BIS, he said, “This area has been identified of late; we are likely to take up the role of a referral laboratory on behalf of the Drugs Controller.” BIS documents indeed show toys –along with packaged mineral water and cosmetics –as an uncharted territory.

Mattel, the manufacturer of Barbie dolls, is the only company that has withdrawn its squrious toys from the market. It called back 800,000 toys on September 4, including 675, 000 Barbie doll accessories. Mattel’s last recall in mid–August covered 19 million toys worldwide. This followed a recall of 1.5 million toys at the beginning of August. More than half the toys sold in the EU are made in China. But these recalls are no display of concern for children.

Ms Meglena Kuneva, European commissioner for consumer protection, delivered a stern message to Governments all over Europe that have been dodging the enforcement of EU rules on consumer protection. This seems to be a pressure series! The lady too is under pressure from the EU member states and Europena Parliament to take action in the run–up to the Christmas shopping season.

The research for this article sprung a surprise. Even European countries far more developed than India do not have regulators monitoring toys. German Finance Minister Michael Glos this week wrote to Gunter Verheugen, the Commissioner for Enterprise And Industry, that an EU–wide technical service agency be set up to inspect imported Chinese toys. The Portuguese Government, too, has demanded action from Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Of course, the absence of European regulator s does not give our Government any reason to remain laidback. Till the Government get its act together, here is what everybody with children at home should know:

Of the two chemicals traced in the Chinese toys and several Indian toys as well–lead has been reported by several national newspaper last week as a neuro–haemato–logical toxin that leads to delayed development and lower intelligence in children. They have said cadmium is a heavy metal that damages the kidneys. The full facts are more worrisome.

Lead poisoning often occurs with no obvious symptoms but it can cause irreversible learning disabilities and behavioural problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and even death. There is no medicinal treatment for lower levels of blood poisoning. Loosely, a child may be said to be lead poisoned if in every deciliter of his blood there is 10 micrograms of lead.

As for cadmium, only the effect on kidney has been mentioned in the papers. This metal can also result in vomiting, diarrhea, fragile bones and even death. Your blood and drinking water may be free of cadmium, but the coating on your child’s toy isn’t. And toddlers have a habit of sucking their toys.

What no paper has spoken of is phthalate poisoning chemicals, used to soften plastic toys made with otherwise rigid PVC plastic, could be poisoning your children even at the lowest levels of exposure. Phthalates can cause liver damage, birth defects and damage to the reproductive system at low exposure levels. If your baby outs plastic toys in his mouth, he could be sucking on deadly poison that could ultimately reach and live in their body tissue.

Greenpeace has shown that plasticizers and stabilisers added to PVC pose unnecessary health risks to children. Nonylphenol used in the manufacture of PVC can damage the DNA of glands that produce antibodies to fight off diseases.

Three of these potentially dangerous toy ingredients’ were banned in all toys and childcare articles in Europe, while another three were banned from use in toys intended for children under three 2005. But EU ruled out banning the other two dangerous phthalates from toy manufacture. And in India, there is no law on phthalates in toys.

If a child has been playing with a recalled toy for a month or more, parents should take the child to a doctor for a blood test. The suggestion to parents is: “Better be safe than sorry.”

Source: Toys that can kill. The Pioneer, New Delhi, 10 September 2007.