BALTIMORE-A Maryland public interest group charged Wednesday that toxic chemicals used to manufacture some common baby products are endangering the health of children.
However, a spokesman for the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission said parents should not be “needlessly scared” by the group’s report, and a chemical manufacturer’s group denounced the charge as a “scare story.” The manufacturer of one of the products said that his company doesn’t even use the chemicals it is accused of using.
The report, titled “The Right Start: The Need to Eliminate Toxic Chemicals from Baby Products,” was released at a press conference by the Maryland Public Interest Research Group at the Downtown Baltimore Childcare Center. The report was released simultaneously around the country by allied public interest and environmental groups.
Ben Clinton, the Maryland group’s citizen outreach director, said potentially harmful chemicals were found in baby products such as Sassy’s “Who Loves Baby?” photo album and Playskool’s Gloworm.
The report said some experts link exposure to chemicals found in these products to health concerns such as learning disabilities, cancer, reproductive problems and weakening immune systems.
Some of the chemicals the group said were in the products are phthalates. Pronounced tha’-lates, they are a family of clear liquid chemicals commonly used to make vinyl plastic flexible and to manufacture perfume, nail polish and adhesives, according to the American Chemical Society’s phthalate Web site.
Dr. Lorne Garrettson, a retired pediatrician and toxicologist, said these chemicals have been linked to genital malformation in male fetuses.
“To protect them, we must protect their mothers,” he said. “There needs to be an intelligent reduction of our use of phthalates.”
But Scott Wolfson, spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the levels of chemicals found in the tested products don’t pose any risk to children.
Parents shouldn’t “be needlessly scared,” he said, because these are “extremely low levels.”
Marian K. Stanley, senior director at the American Chemical Council, said some of the chemicals measured by the study are not even used in toy production in the United States.
“This report is doing a disservice to parents,” Stanley said. “This is a scare story that is skewing what’s out there.”
The Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of regulating industrial chemicals in the United States, and the research groups want chemicals that make humans sick to be banned.
Clinton said the Consumer Product Safety Commission should require manufacturers to list the chemicals used in production on the packaging.
The packaging for Sassy’s vinyl flexible plastic photo album labeled the product “phthalate-free,” but the researchers’ tests showed it actually contained two such chemicals. Clinton said the European Union has banned these chemicals in children’s products.
Fritz Hirsch, spokesman for Sassy, Inc., said the groups’ claims are “totally not accurate and not truthful.
“Our products are completely safe,” Hirsch said. “We use safe alternatives” to phthalates, and he said if the study showed Sassy products had the chemicals, the study was wrong.
The research groups recommend that parents protect their children from exposure to these potentially harmful chemicals by not using plastic for food storage, not using harsh soaps or hot water to clean plastics and not allowing their children to put plastic toys into their mouths.
The report recommends parents choose “PVC-free” soft plastic toys and teethers or wooden toys for their children. Plastic shouldn’t be microwaved or washed in the dishwasher because it speeds up the process in which the chemicals leach out of the plastic.
Wolfson said the Consumer Product Safety Commission is more concerned with children’s exposure to lead through costume jewelry and other sources.
Lead is an area “where we have tested and know the acceptable and hazardous levels,” Wolfson said. In the study performed by Paradigm Environmental Services in Rochester, N.Y., three of seven infant sleep accessories tested contained toxic flame retardants in the foam materials. Fifteen of 18 bath products and teething toys tested were found to have phthalates.