Poisonous presents

Many toys are full of softening agents that are suspected of causing cancer. The European Union has had rules limiting the concentration of these substances in products for the last year.

But consumer protection officials in Germany warn that these limits aren't protecting children's health. They want more stringent EU regulations for toys and they want them as soon as possible.

Shop carefully!

Particularly the rubber in plastic dolls and other toys for children can be toxic. It's the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs that make rubber soft. But for months German officials have been warning that these soft, squeaky toys can be poisonous, cause genetic damage and lead to cancer.

"We've found a lot of products on the market that have very high levels of PAHs and that are classified as dangerous," says Ralf Dieckmann from TUEV Rhineland, a consumer protection and testing organization.

Black rubber often contains these softening agents in high concentrations. Industrial by-products are used to soften the natural rubber and darken it at the same time.This is cost-efficient for the manufacturer but puts kids at risk.

Toys more poisonous than tires

Andreas Hensel is the president of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. His institute is also critical of EU PAH limits. They allow toys to have a concentration 1,000 times higher than that allowed in car tires, he says.

Children are more sensitive to chemicals than adults and they come in contact with the dangerous softeners more often.

"If they play with these particular toys long enough, they absorb more PAHs than if they were forced to inhale the second-hand smoke of an adult smoking 20 to 40 cigarettes," Hensel says.

Childhood cancer on the rise

Since 1980 childhood cancer is up 50 percent. The researchers believe that one reason may be the lax PAH limits. So they're calling on the EU to give toys the same toxicity rules as for food. Germany's Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner is too.

Aigner sees an urgent need for action and she says that, if necessary, Germany will go it alone. "The last step would be a ban on imports," she says. "But first we have to set the reduction of the allowable concentration in motion."

A nation-wide ban on a possible carcinogen is, however, difficult. Unsafe products can only be detected by sampling and only then can they be taken off the market. Aigner points out that she has asked the EU Commissioner for Industry Guenther Verheugen several times to lower the amounts of PAH allowed in toys. Thus far, she says, she hasn't had any response.

Author: Nina Haase / hf
Editor: Trinity Hartman