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Environmental Group Reveals Toxic Chemicals in a Range of Consumer Items
Some tennis balls for dogs, chew toys for cats and women’s plastic handbags were among the common household items found to contain lead and other toxic chemicals in recent tests, a nonprofit environmental group reported on Wednesday.
Healthystuff.org The Ecology Center, a group based in Michigan, announced that it had expanded its online database, healthystuff.org, to reflect 15,000 test results on more than 5,000 common items.
But independent toxicity experts expressed uncertainty that the mere presence of a toxic chemical in some objects would pose a clear health danger to people or animals.
The products were rated by level of concern from low to high, depending on how much lead, mercury, arsenic or other chemicals known to be hazardous to human and pet health were detected.
Jeff Gearhart, the research director for the center, which is known for its investigations on chemicals in children’s toys and cars, said it had decided to expand the database because of intense public demand for information on all types of products.
Mr. Gearhart said the center’s announcement was timed to give a lift to current efforts in Congress to introduce legislation to more closely regulate toxic chemicals that end up in so many household products.
“Current laws that regulate individual products are stopgap measures,” he said, “Ultimately we need to move to a system that doesn’t regulate the end product but regulates the chemicals themselves.”
Still, many experts on public health and toxicology cast doubt on the significance of finding lead in a woman’s handbag, for example, where it had little chance of ending up in a growing child’s digestive system.
Dr. Andrew D. Racine, director of the division of general pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, said that any item that contained significant quantities of lead should not be given to children. But in most cases, knowing that a product may contain measurable quantities of a potentially toxic chemical is not helpful, he said.
“What does this mean?” he asked. “What’s the impact on our health? Without knowing that, all this does is frighten people.”
Some manufacturers echoed his observation that the report did not take into account actual exposure to the chemical.
For example, Jerry Sciarini, quality manager for OurPet’s, the manufacturers of the Play-N-Squeak Shake y’r Tail Feather mouse, objected to its being rated with a “high level” of concern. He said the lead was sewn into the toy and further sealed into a layer of plastic to protect the animal.
“There are no standards for pets, but retailers see pets as members of the family and ask us to treat them like they are, so we do,” Mr. Sciarini said.
Yet Charlotte Brody, the national field director for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a Washington group that lobbies for more regulation of toxic chemical manufacturers, said it was useful for the public to have the information.
“The honest answer to this report is we do not know how big a deal it is,” she said. “Every year we learn that what we had learned was a safe level of a chemical turns out not to be that safe.
“If people are telling you lead is safe, even in small amounts, it isn’t science. It is hubris.”
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15 Comments so far
Show AllWe are being poisoned with all these toxic chemicals. When are we going to stand up for our consumer rights?
Until Obama quits appointing so many supply-siders, how can we expect things to improve?
Things will change when we stop waiting for the government, whom ever happens to be President, to make changes, and start doing everything we can do as individuals to make those changes in our own lives. We can stop buying every "cute" thing that comes out. We can stick to glass, cotton, wool, and all things natural, and let all our pet-lover friends and relatives know just what they're subjecting their pets to with these cutsy toys, and probably their children as well. Eventually the word will have spread far enough to start making a difference, if not in government controls, then in bringing down the suppliers of these poisoned items.
That's my plan. I've been at it for about 15 years. It doesn't hurt the pocketbook, either.
Why do people buy toys for their pets? As much as we like to think our pets are people and part of the family, they don't give a shit about where we get toys. Buy a tennis ball at a pet store? Are you friggin kidding me? Play-N-Squeak Shake y’r Tail Feather? People actually buy this crap? Maybe this explains it all. Isn't a Petco the prime example of warped captialism? A large store devoted to nothing but pet accessories (all made in China). As if we can't draw a face on a ping pong ball so Fluffy can go crazy? But maybe Fluffy is too sophisticated and NEEDS to know the toy was purchased from PETCO.
It's far better to be aware that products we use, or that our pets use, could contain toxic chemicals. To wallow in the ignorant bliss that every product on store shelves must be safe is foolish. If the lead-containing doggie toy were to be torn open (would a dog ever tear a toy apart???), it would be prudent to be sure that the toy and its stuffing were completely and immediately cleaned up to avoid the pet (or children in the houselhold) accidentally ingesting lead.
If no one points out these findings, industry will begin the inevitable creep to using cheaper, even if they are toxic, components in their products. That there are organizations doing what are effectively unannounced drug testing, makes these industries more likely to stick to safe, non-toxic materials.
RE: would a dog ever tear a toy apart???
Would a child?
Getting toxic toys off the shelf is only part of the problem - they will still be at Sally Ann and your local garage sale. Babies and kitties like anything that they can pick up with their tiny hands, with moving parts or bells inside or anything that wobbles and doesn't fall down when you kick it. They both like batting things while lying on their backs.
Be sure, if you get rid of a plastic, that they go in recycling rather than the landfill. Let the people who pick them up decide what do do with them.
Well said.
RE: “The honest answer to this report is we do not know how big a deal it is,” she said. “Every year we learn that what we had learned was a safe level of a chemical turns out not to be that safe.
And that is not accounting for the fact that people vary in how well they metabolize these poisons - some will always be able to handle a specific toxin better than others.
As far as pet toys go, you've got to figure that there is some overlap between the type of toys that babies enjoy and puppies/kitties enjoy. I've actually seen the same toy for babies and for dogs but with different labels on them.
All of these plastics can be made with hemp. What a shame that the plant was taxed and later outlawed 72 years ago.
what did we expect????...............
The thing I continue not to understand is, why do they need to use lead in the first place? It's like they're thinking to themselves, "now we gotta fill this toy with as much poison as possible without breaking any regulations". Why? Why not just not use any of it, at all, ever? You can't sew together a toy ball for a dog without using lead? I've sewn several things in my life and somehow lead never managed to be involved. I just don't get it.
When I was a kid I was happy to play with rocks and tree branches and mud and ice. Yes the Neanderthals are still here.
Yep, a plastic coating is going to keep a cat from being exposed to lead. You're fired!
Let me send you some of the toys my cats have chewed and we'll see if the plastic coating is still there. LOL
The reason they have toxic chemicals in them is they are made in CHINA! Land of abundant chemicals and very little oversight.
Buy American and save a life!
Screw the US Chamber of Greed!