WASHINGTON -- Twelve consumer, environmental and religious organizations asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission Thursday to ban vinyl toys for small children, four days after Canadian officials advised parents of small children to throw away vinyl teethers and rattles, because of possible kidney and liver damage.
In addition, 28 members of Congress signed a letter to President Clinton asking whether the Commerce Department was lobbying to keep European markets open to vinyl toys, and urging that the lobbying stop if it was doing so. Several European countries have restricted vinyl in toys, partly in response to a sustained campaign by Greenpeace.
Even though scientists do not agree on whether vinyl toys are a hazard, some toy makers and marketers have stopped selling them. Toys R Us said this week that it had removed toys with vinyl that are intended to be mouthed by infants.
Toy manufacturers say vinyl is safe. As a practical matter, manufacturers said, teethers and some other small objects made by injection moulding can be made from vinyl-free plastics; more complex shapes, like rubber ducks or teddy bears, cannot.
The material at issue is polyvinylchloride, or PVC, which is familiar to consumers as a material used for pipes and other rigid parts, mixed with a "plasticizer," to make it soft. Since the mid-1980's, the industry has used a plasticizer called DINP, because a material used up to that time, DEHP, was found to cause health damage to rodents at high doses. More recent studies show that the substitute material produces similar effects in rodents, but chemical manufacturers say that the damage occurs by a mechanism that is not relevant to humans, and that both materials are safe.
The commission, which brokered the deal in the mid-80's that ended the use of DEHP, said today that it was conducting research on how much of the material a child could ingest, and reviewing the animal studies that showed health damage, and hoped to make an announcement soon.
The announcement Thursday was made by the National Environmental Trust, whose president, Philip Clapp, said it was unacceptable that American parents would have to go to a Canadian Web site to get authoritative government advice on the issue. (Health Canada's advisory is available at www.hc-sc.gc.ca/advisory/index.htm).
And, Clapp said, even steps like the ones taken by the Canadian Government and Toys R Us were inadequate, because they only covered items that were intended to go into a baby's mouth.
"Infants and toddlers don't distinguish between toys intended for the mouth and all other toys," he said.
In September, Mattel Inc., of El Segundo, Calif., said it would phase out the plasticizers in teeth toys for children under 36 months. Today the National Environmental Trust listed two of its products as having particularly high levels of DINP, but neither was covered by the phase-out. The toys were the arms of Rugrats Tommy Pickles Ice Cream Face doll and the shoes of Cabbage Patch Kids Starr Rosie Doll.
Mattel did not respond to a telephone call seeking comment.
David A. Miller, a spokesman for the Toy Manufacturers of America, an industry group based in New York, said the plasticizers had been thoroughly studied, used for years and represented no risk. Miller said the Canadian authorities had grossly overestimated the amount of the material a child could get from chewing on such a toy.
Asked if the product should be banned until proven safe, he said, "On that logic, you can rule out half the products sold in the United States today."
Illustrating the uncertainty, Dr. Cathey Falvo, a pediatrician representing Physicians for Social Responsibility who spoke today in favor of a ban, said that some health effects might not turn up for decades.
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