Apparently a voluntary ban on chemicals in toys isn’t enough to do the trick in Canada. A year-long survey found that three-quarters of soft plastic toys in the country contain chemicals founds to be dangerous…and banned in the European Union.

[social_buttons]Like so many other stories about chemicals in everyday products, the countries of North America once again come up short of Europe. The chemical family is phthalates, and the chemicals are used to soften toys for children. But they’ve been found to cause reproductive harm and cancer, and since they easily leach from toys, they can be especially dangerous to children who suck on everything when learning to teeth.





>>Read more about the chemicals in everyday products at Green Options

President Bush has also recognized their danger, and toys containing the chemicals will be illegal to sell in the United States in February.

“What these results mean is that many toys on sale in Canada are illegal to sell in the European Union and George Bush’s government has said that they are too toxic to be on sale in the U.S. as of February. So why do Canadian kids deserve less protection than George Bush is giving to American children?” asked Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, in an interview with CanWest News Service.

Though the chemicals were taken out of teethers and rattles a decade ago, there was never any sort of ban on other toys, which children are just as apt to put into their mouths.

I think this shows that there must be strong legislation to take chemicals out of everyday products. It’s only when countries, such as those in Europe, have prohibited chemicals that they actually have been taken out of products on a wide scale. It’s absurd that some companies make two different kinds of products to sell to two different types of markets: that of the countries who accept the chemicals, and that of the countries who haven’t.

America can claim itself a leader in many areas, but in this case, it’s far behind.

Photo Credit: cafemama at Flickr under a Creative Commons License