Tips for Buying Safe Toys

Before you finish up that last minute shopping, keep this info in mind, courtesy of Moms Rising and the Breast Cancer Fund...

Phthalates, plastic-softening chemicals, have been linked to serious health problems including early puberty (a risk factor for breast cancer), birth defects and testicular cancer. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was intended to ban sales of these toxic toys starting on February 10, 2009. Congress clearly intended the law to implement a full ban, so that parents would be confident that no toy on any store shelf contains toxic phthalates, and children would no longer be put at risk. Yet now the law is being interpreted as that it's okay to sell toxic toys as long as they were manufactured before the February deadline.

The phthalate ban will go into effect February 10, 2009. Until then (and perhaps after, if the CPSC has its way), stores can continue to sell toys that contain phthalates. Our suggestion for now: buyer beware. Know what to look for when buying plastic toys and avoid phthalates:

* Soft plastic toys that young children might put in their mouths may contain phthalates unless they are marked "phthalate-free," "PVC-free" or "EU compliant," or they carry the CE mark (which indicates that the product is compliant with European Union regulations and therefore phthalate-free).

* Both teethers and pacifiers sold in the United States are supposed to be phthalate-free already, though parents should purchase these items from reputable retailers.

* Recycling codes (if toys have them) may help you determine if the items are made with PVC, which often contains phthalates. PVC plastics are marked #3. Better choices are codes #1, #2 or #5. The Breast Cancer Fund recommends that people also avoid plastics marked #6 (styrene) and #7 (“other,” but often BPA-based).

* To be safe, we recommend that parents discard soft plastic toys and childcare articles that do not fall into one of the exceptions listed above. When purchasing new items, look for phthalate-free toys and make sure retailers know phthalate-free merchandise is important to you.