By Jeremy Walsh
A new federal law will take toys containing a toxic plastic byproduct off shelves and heighten restrictions on other toxins, but toymakers and retailers do not plan to comply until after the Christmas shopping season, City Councilman Eric Gioia (D−Sunnyside) and the New York Public Interest Research Group warned last week.
“Retailers should take these toxic toys off the shelves before children are harmed,” Gioia said in a statement. “These toys are just as toxic now as they will be when the ban takes effect in February, and it shouldn’t take laws and lawsuits for stores to do the right thing.”
NYPIRG’s annual toxic toys report found dangerous levels of substances like lead and arsenic in a number of toys available in toy stores throughout the city, including the Pony Land Scented Pony Pet; the seven−piece children’s Beginner Band Set of musical instruments; the Leapster2 handheld game system and its “Wall−E” game; the Disney Fairies Fold−out Chair & Sleeping Pad; a set of four bead necklaces made by Unique; Totally Me! Dressy Rainbow Jewelry; and Alex brand Mini Twist Up Crayons.
When it takes effect Feb. 10, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will ban the sale of toys containing pthalates, chemicals often found in soft plastic toys which have been found to cause many health problems, including premature delivery, birth defects, early onset puberty and lower sperm counts in men.
The new law also mandates stricter monitoring of substances like lead, which affects brain development and causes learning and developmental problems, shorter attention spans and delayed learning.
But NYPIRG said toy companies are trying to skirt the new law.
“While the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is a major step forward, many of its protections won’t be in effect until 2009, so it’s still buyer beware for this shopping season,” said NYPIRG spokeswoman Tracy Shelton.
“Worse,” she said, “recently the Consumer Products Safety Commission told companies that they could continue to sell toys with toxic phthalate chemicals until they ran out of them, instead of complying with the law’s clear prohibition against selling them after Feb. 10.”
As a result of that ruling, the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen and the Natural Resource Defense Council announced a lawsuit against the ruling.
“It’s a sad day when we have to sue the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to stop it from undermining safety laws,” said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division, in a statement. “But when the commission gives industry the green−light to violate the law and put toxic toys on store shelves, we have no choice.”
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e−mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 154.
