Parents are expected to spend an average of $1,000 on toys this holiday season, and as they head to the store this weekend many of them will face questions about whether certain chemicals used in their children’s playthings could cause harm.
The questions are a result of lobbying by various interest groups, conflicting scientific studies, and inconsistent state laws. While chemicals that are used in some toys aren’t deadly, some advocates have raised concerns about children being exposed to them over time, pointing to studies that suggest ingesting them could be linked to learning disabilities, hormone disruption, or cancer.
“Usually it’s not a product causing death, it’s a product that may be causing harm, or some small degree of harm,” said Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital who specializes in environmental health.
Laws vary significantly by state. In California, all products — including toys — that contain specific chemicals must carry a warning label that says the product is “known to the state to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive toxicity.” Under state law, California every year must update its list of chemicals, which has surpassed 800 entries.
Washington state requires that manufacturers list toys in a database if they contain a specific list of chemicals. Parents can search the database online to inquire about specific toys. Laws in Maine, Oregon, and Vermont require toymakers to report products if they contain certain levels of specific chemicals.
Rather than instituting a ban, the laws tend to be framed by advocates as policies geared toward parents having a right to know what is in the toys they buy for their children. It’s not clear to what extent this information has been helpful to consumers and how it has affected their buying, but other states are considering similar legislation. Some bills would implement reporting requirements, while others would ban toys that contain specific chemicals. Advocating for such laws is an organization called Safer States, which is a network of environmental health coalitions.
“In general with the states, some are way more protective of public health than the national and federal legislation, and some are way less,” Sathyanarayana said.
Toy manufacturers have pushed back on some of the laws, saying that just because a particular chemical is used to make a product does not mean that is it unsafe or that government safety standards have been flouted.
“There has been a lot of challenges associated with having this patchwork of state by state regulations on chemicals,” said Jennifer Gibbons, vice president of state government affairs at the Toy Association. The association has stressed national standards instead, she said.
Chemicals are regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which was updated by Congress in 2016. The Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific advisory committee has not met under the Trump administration to review how the law has been implemented, however.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently issued a final rule prohibiting types of phthalates from being used in toys for children 12 years of age and younger. That happened even though the Food and Drug Administration concluded that “it’s not clear what effect, if any, phthalates have on human health” and has noted that the use of the chemicals in children’s products already has been reduced. The chemicals help manufacturers make plastics more flexible, but some evidence suggests that ingesting them may cause fertility problems later in life.
Reported harm from toys tends to be tied to issues other than chemicals. In fiscal 2017, 174,100 trips to the emergency room were related to toys, though not necessarily the cause of an injury, among children younger than 15, according to the CPSC. Most injuries were related to nonmotorized scooters. Seven children died, according to the report, three of whom were in situations that also involved a motor vehicle. None of the deaths involved a chemical from a toy, according to the report.
“Toy safety continues to be a top priority for CPSC, especially during this season of gift-giving,” said Ann Marie Buerkle, acting chairman of the CPSC.
Products that can kill children are recalled by the CPSC. In fiscal 2017 the agency recalled 28 toys, not because of chemical concerns but because they posed other safety hazards, such as chocking or overheating.
One of the biggest challenges to toy manufacturers regarding chemicals, said Gibbons, is that not all of the information on specific chemicals has undergone robust scientific research.
For instance, while the harmful effects of chemicals such as lead are established, questions over the effects of a chemical like bisphenol-A, or BPA, continue to be controversial.
Sathyanarayana, who supports expanding state information and restrictions on chemicals, said not all chemicals are weighed equally. For instance, some are of bigger concern for toddlers who may be putting them in their mouths, but are safe for children who are touching them, such as by tossing a ball.
“These laws are good, but they don’t prevent the exposure completely,” Sathyanarayana said. “We have made a lot of progress within the past decade of consumers and parents being able to find out about these toys, but what we haven’t made progress on is taking these chemicals out of these toys when they might be harmful.”
For manufacturers that sell nationally, adhering to various state standards can be a challenge. The Toy Association reiterated, as well, that toy safety involves a variety of factors that are not related to chemicals, such as whether a child can choke on them or whether they are being given toys that are not appropriate for their age, guidance parents may choose not to follow. Manufacturers must comply with more than 100 regulations and tests before they call sell their products in the U.S.
“Members of the toy industry will continue to work with medical and child development experts, engineers, scientists and government and consumer representatives to maintain the stringent toy safety standards and regulations that take into account all aspects of a product’s intended use,” reads the Toy Association’s statement on safety. “We support ongoing scientific research that can help inform these standards, strengthen them, and reinforce the safety of toys.”
