<\/p>\n
Read this story in the Guardian<\/a>, Trouw<\/a>,\u00a0Rzeczpospolita lead<\/a>,\u00a0Rzeczpospolita<\/a>\u00a0second<\/a>,\u00a0N\u00e9pszava<\/a>, De Morgen<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> \/ Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 18 December 2018, Brussels –<\/b> Banned chemicals are found in toys more than any other product type, according to analysis of alerts shared by governments across Europe in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n Officials this year issued warnings about 290 toys found with illegal levels of toxic substances banned by the EU because they may cause cancer, autism and birth defects or other health impacts. Most (250) were plastic toys, 150 were plastic dolls, 21 were modelling clays or slimes, 31 were balloons or balls. More toys failed chemical checks than any other type of product, including clothing (42), cosmetics (91), jewellery (51) and even protective equipment (5), according to analysis of alerts sent via the EU rapid alert system <\/span>Rapex<\/span><\/a> this week by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), the largest network of environmental organisations in Europe. Of the 1,996 products of all types checked for all risks, 563 failed chemical tests.<\/span><\/p>\n Last week, news <\/span>emerged<\/span><\/a> that customs officers <\/span>destroyed<\/span><\/a> 31,590 mainly plastic Chinese dolls they considered a \u201cserious risk\u201d to children due to illegal levels of <\/span>phthalates<\/span><\/a>. Officers said 92% of the 722,000 toys seized carried the CE safety stamp. The stamp indicates the manufacturer met EU health, safety, and environmental standards and its presence is \u201cworrying\u201d, according to Polish ministry of finance officer Anna Kobylecka. Phthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals, ten of which are classified as \u2018substances of very high concern\u2019, some of which have been banned for many years. <\/span><\/p>\n A string of more recent cases indicate the problem is not a one-off. An <\/span>EU sponsored<\/span><\/a> enforcement project looking not at imports, but at goods already on the European market reported in November 2018 that one in five toys had \u201c<\/span>very high<\/span><\/a>\u201d levels of phthalates, and that toys failed tests more than any other product group.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other recent cases include:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n EEB chemicals policy manager Tatiana Santos said:<\/b><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>We are happy to see agents blocking dangerous toys. Sadly they are fighting a losing battle. Manufacturers do not fear the law and government inspectors are outnumbered and outgunned. With the UN talking about a silent pandemic of disease due to chemical exposure, we need proper chemicals control and enforcement more than ever. Yet the EU just put a wide-ranging and overdue strategy to tackle the problem on ice. It should reverse that decision. And in the meantime, shoppers this Christmas might want to try and avoid plastic toys altogether.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n European laws are central to chemical controls at national level. <\/span>REACH<\/span><\/a> regulation set out to ban 1,400 of the most toxic substances, thereby stimulating development of safer alternatives. Over a decade later, just 43 are banned in principle. Of these, the EU has a <\/span>100 percent track<\/span><\/a> record of allowing companies to continue using them. With no effective legal driver, companies are instead demanding<\/span> financial incentives<\/span><\/a> to innovate. The European Chemicals Agency and government authorities have been told to raise their game by the European Commission in a recent strongly worded <\/span>staff working document<\/span><\/a> (see pages 26, 31 and 32). Yet the Commission <\/span>froze<\/span><\/a> an important, wide-ranging and overdue non-toxic environment strategy, a prime chance to reform chemical regulations and effectively control harmful substances. This follows pressure from industry and an ongoing deregulation agenda, NGOs say. Last week, the former head of the European Chemicals Agency said it was time to go \u201c<\/span>back to the drawing board<\/span><\/a>\u201d. Meanwhile, toy and textile makers are among the industries trying to <\/span>kill off<\/span><\/a> a mandatory tool to let citizens trace harmful chemicals in products.<\/span><\/p>\n Ends<\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" – Toys the worst product for banned chemicals – official figures – Officials destroy 30,000 mainly Chinese dolls of \u201cserious risk\u201d to children – NGOs criticise [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":96564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,138,3,4],"tags":[361,360,362,359],"class_list":["post-96563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chemicals","category-circular-economy","category-news","category-press-release","tag-banned-chemicals","tag-christmas","tag-substances-of-very-high-concern","tag-toys"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/toy-gun.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n