Effective April 26, a new ruling with ban the use of five more phthalates in toys and child care products. This is in addition to the three phthalates in 2009, bringing to eight the total number of phthalates restricted from use in children’s toys and child care articles in concentrations exceeding 0.1 percent.
Phthalates are a common ingredient in soft vinyl and easily outgassed.
But watch out. Even if you see “phthalate-free” on a children’s product label, that doesn’t mean they contain zero phthalate. This refers only to the eight banned phthalates. There are still at least 18 other phthalates that could be present that have not been banned. All phthalates easily outgas from any plastics that contain them.
Research links phthalates with problems with the endocrine system and the liver, as well as cancer.
Numerous U.S. government agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The U.S. Department of Health, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have expressed concern about phthalates.
In February 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) permanently banned three types of phthalates from crib mattresses, children’s toys, and other child care articles, specifically:
- di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)
- dibutyl phthalate (DBP)
- benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP)
At the same time, they placed a ban on an interim basis on three more types of phthalates, specifically:
- diisononyl phthalate (DINP)
- diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP)
- Di-n-octylphthalate (DnOP).
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 also required the CPSC to appoint a Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) to “review the potential effects on children’s health of all phthalates and phthalate alternatives in children’s toys and childcare articles.” This review included the cumulative effects of exposure to multiple phthalates from all sources.
After nine years of review, the CPSC issued a final rule, effective April 25, 2018, prohibiting children’s toys and child care articles that contain concentrations of more than 0.1 percent on five additional phthalated, specifically:
- diisononyl phthalate (DINP)
- diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP)
- di-n-pentyl phthalate (DPENP)
- di-n-hexyl phthalate (DHEXP)
- dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP).
The Congressional prohibition on three phthalate chemicals under the CPSIA remains in full force and effect.
This seems to be the end of the investigation by the CPSC into phthalates. But there are other phthalates that may have similar health effects.
In 2014 the CHAP released “Report to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission by the Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel on Phthalates and Phthalate Alternatives.”
After assessing the risks of 14 phthalates (a list of “the most common phthalates” numbers 25 and there are certainly more) the CHAP found, “Although phthalates cause a wide range of toxicities, the most extensively studied is male developmental toxicity in the rat…specifically referred to as the ‘phthalate syndrome.’” And this “bears a resemblance to the “testicular dysgenesis syndrome” (TDS) in humans, which includes poor semen quality, testis cancer, cryptorchidism {the absence of one or both testes from the scrotum], and hypospadias {a congenital disorder of the urethra where the urinary opening is not at the usual location on the head of the penis], and which is hypothesized to have its origins during fetal life.”
Furthermore, exposure to multiple phthalates “act in an additive fashion in causing effects associated with the phthalate syndrome.”
The CHAP also repeatedly recommended that “the appropriate U.S. agencies obtain the necessary exposure and hazard data to estimate total exposure to the phthalate alternatives and assess the potential health risks.”
One more thing about phthalates: GREENGUARD certifies a number of crib mattresses with vinyl covers to meet their “low emissions” standards. These crib mattresses with vinyl covers pass the test because GREENGUARD does not test for phthalates.
