Toxic Toys Suck!

I’m not a completely neurotic mother. I let my daughter climb, unassisted, the cement steps to the wood bridge over our acequia which she walks back and forth on before descending the same cement steps. Sometimes, I let her walk around while nibbling on a bagel or apple. I even let her outside without a hat on, but rarely. I’m crazy, I know. Yet, what really scares me, are her toys. Yes, the seemingly innocent play items that fill her day with joy. It seems like everyday, another one is being recalled for choking hazards or lead content. Not to mention, the one’s that are not being recalled, those that the Government Consumer Product Safety Commission only “suggests” might be unsafe, such as BPA, PVC, phthalates, and other big words.

Finally, in August of 2008, The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was signed into law. As of January 1, 2009, this bans toys in the U.S. (Europe already had this law for the past 10 years. I guess common sense is a European trait.) for children under 12 years old from containing, not just neuro-toxic heavy metals such as lead, but also hormone disrupting phthalate plasticizers, which has been found to be harmful to the endocrine and reproductive systems in children. Be careful though, some of the toys on today’s shelves may have been produced before this date.

BPA has still not been banned from baby bottles, teething toys and sippy cups even though the National Toxicology Center says it may alter human development. For now, the best we can do is only buy products that are BPA free, such as Born Free, Medela, Gerber (ClearView, Fashion Tints and Gentle Flow) and Avent (Via System) .

As for chocking hazards, do you remember last year’s big recall on Haba toys? Haba, with their cute little, colorful, wooden toys that you thought so worthy of your extra dollar and your trust, had toys with parts falling off. One of my Haba teethers lost its mirror thingy. When I tried to call them to get my money back on the recall, the reception was so bad on my land line that I gave up and tossed the toy. My point is, if you can’t trust those wooden European toys, what can you trust? I’m considering taking up a new hobby, widdling wood and making paint out of flowers.

2 Comments

Other Links to this Post

1. Also Known As Mom » Toxic Toys Suck! — March 15, 2009 @ 12:18 pm

2. Anonymous — March 15, 2009 @ 2:00 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment