Congress And The House Approve Bans On Toys Made With Lead And Phthalates

by

Victor Epand

Due to all the recent recalls on tainted toys, Congress and the House have become so alarmed that they voted overwhelmingly to ban lead and other dangerous chemicals such as phthalets from children’s toys.

The new legislation will toughen the rules on the testing of children’s products and take steps to give more muscle to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Parents should be able to purchase toys for their children without having to worry about if they are dangerous or not. This new bill is considered as the most far-reaching product safety bills issued in decades, which will ensure that all children’s toys will be tested in the laboratory before they are tested by your children at home.

This bill sets the toughest lead standards in the world by banning lead beyond minute levels in products that are for children twelve and younger. This bill also bans all children products that contain six type of phthalates, which are chemicals that are found in plastics and are suspected of posing health risk. The bill was passed in the House 424 to 1 and was then sent to Congress where it was approved and passed. This new bill received opposition that was voiced by the White House due to certain parts within the bill, but it has not yet been threatened with a veto. A key change in the monitoring practices will be that toys for children would have to be tested by third party testing before they are eligible to be marketed. Finally, parents and health experts know that the toys of children will not contain toxins that can be harmful to children.

There are an unlimited supply of plastic products on the market today and a large quantity of homes with the United States are filled with hundreds of plastic products. This rare action upon the part of Congress and the House reflects a growing body of scientific research showing that children ingest the toxins by acts as simple as chewing on a rubber duck. Used for decades in plastic production, these chemicals are now thought to act as hormones and cause reproductive problems, especially in boys. It also signals an important crack in the chemical industry’s ability to fend off federal regulation and suggests that the landscape may be shifting to favor consumers.

The movement to ban the toxins accelerated last year when California prohibited their use in children’s products. Earlier this year, the country’s largest retailer and the biggest toy seller told their suppliers that they will no longer carry products containing the chemicals, known as phthalates, as of Jan. 1, 2009. Toys containing these chemicals, however, will still be on many retail shelves during the holiday season.

The White House opposes the ban but that it was too early to say whether he would veto the measure, which is part of popular legislation to reform the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The bill would ban lead in children’s products and would give consumers access to a new database of complaints or accident reports for goods. The House and Senate lawmakers agreed to permanently ban three types of phthalates from children’s toys and to outlaw three other phthalates from products pending an extensive study of their health effects in children and pregnant women. Phthalates make plastics softer and more durable and also are added to perfumes, lotions, shampoos and other items.

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Congress And The House Approve Bans On Toys Made With Lead And Phthalates

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