Toys

Role of Regulatory Agencies in Assessing Children's Toy Safety

In the United States, the federal government does not require the full testing of chemicals before they are added to consumer products, making toy manufacturers less likely to conduct safety testing on specific chemical ingredients before their use. The federal law presumed to regulate individual chemical ingredients, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), became law in the early 1970s, giving the Environmental Protection Agency the task of collecting data on the thousands of chemicals used in commerce. Unfortunately, this regulatory task has been a large undertaking, and the Environmental Protection Agency has managed to collect data on fewer than 200 of the more than 62,000 chemicals registered for use since TSCA's inception in the 1970s. Therefore, toy manufacturers have very few [Page 441]restrictions on the types of chemicals they may use in children's products. The restrictions that are in place are limited to five types of chemicals, all of which are universally seen as highly toxic substances: halogenated chlorofluoroalkanes, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, hexavalent chromium, and asbestos.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is the U.S. federal agency tasked with regulating the safety of consumer products, including children's toys. Although the majority of CPSC restrictions deal with the use of the toy, rather than the materials it is made of, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 imposes new requirements on the manufacturers of a variety of consumer products, including toys, and also requires some new testing procedures and reduced acceptable exposure levels for some chemicals (such as lead). However, the outcomes of this legislative act are still unclear.

The unwieldy nature of U.S. regulatory mechanisms and their failure to respond quickly to perceived toxic threats means that some toxic chemicals inevitably end up in children's toys. Lead, bromine, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are hazardous chemicals that have been found in children's toys in recent years, often to the detriment of children's health and safety.

Chemicals of Concern

When found in toys, lead is often used as pigmentation in paint, plastics, or rubber. Widely recognized as a neurological and developmental toxin, lead has been restricted in children's toys and, according to CPSC policy, should not be present in children's products at any level higher than 300 parts per million.

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