Some chemicals used in plastic toys for a long time are known to be harmful to human health. However, it is difficult for parents to understand plastic toys that contain chemicals that can threaten children’s health. Although there are different regulations and markings in different countries of the world, there is unfortunately no international agreement regarding which substances are prohibited to be used in toy production.
In addition, regulations and international chemical lists in most parts of the world apply to certain substance groups known to be harmful. For example; There are some regulations for phthalates, but the various chemicals used in plastic toys are often omitted. “Out of 419 chemicals found in hard, soft and foam children’s toys, we found that 126 substances contain carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic damages to children’s health.
These substances also include 31 plasticizers, 18 fire retardants and 8 fragrances. When we say harmful in our study, we mean that the estimated exposure of these substances exceeds the regulatory risk limits for regulatory Reference Doses (RfD) or cancer risks.
These items should be gradually removed from plastic toys and replaced by safe and sustainable alternatives, ”says Peter Fantke, head of research at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The first author of the study, Nicolò Aurisano, states that manufacturers generally provide no information on the chemical content in toys, and therefore content data is missing.
So, the researchers used chemical analyzes to identify chemicals in toys, based on research that went through 25 peer-reviewed journals. However, Nicolò adds: “Chemical ingredients in toy materials; We analyzed data such as how children play with the toy, whether they put it in their mouth or not.
We also paid attention to how many toys the children had at home. Using this information, we compared unacceptable doses for children, using the estimated exposure based on a mass-balance model. ” Researchers found that plastic toy exposure averaged 18 kilo in western countries. This result shows that children are exposed to large amounts of plastic in their daily environment.
Plasticizers Used Instead of Phthalates Are Also Harmful
Researchers state that phthalates and brominated fire retardants are already known to be harmful to children’s health, but two plasticizers, butyrate TXIB and citrate ATBC, also carry health risks. “These additives should also be regarded as defective, as children exposed to these alternatives are exposed to other risks without cancer risk.
Here we replace a harmful chemical with a harmful counterpart. Broadly speaking, soft plastics cause the highest harmful chemical exposure and inhalation exposure dominates in children.
Because when children are playing in a room, they inhale the chemicals emitted from the toys and at least touch a toy, ”explains Peter Fantke. The researchers state that toys can be found in different concentrations of the same chemicals, but the maximum acceptable amount of chemical content needs to be determined.
The researchers gömü a comparative table, bringing a new measure of exposure and risk of chemical ingredients to be used in toys. With this type of information, toy manufacturers can make toys safer by knowing how many chemicals are in the safe range. Until the regulations come in, the researchers say that for now, it is difficult to know which plastic toy contains harmful chemicals or not.
For parents, they have a piece of advice; She says they should reduce their purchase of plastic toys, avoid soft plastic toys, and ventilate the child’s room every day. The new research özgü been published in Environment International magazine.
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