Federal government urged to immediately regulate toxic chemicals in plastics to better protect children from harmful exposures

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Today, Environmental Defence is highlighting testing that found several toxic chemicals hiding in plastic products people wear, use and play with every day. Many of these products are marketed to children, and two of the products released roughly five times the allowable daily oral exposure for infants in a “wipe test.”

Lead, cadmium, and phthalates were found in several plastic products. These  are highly harmful substances linked to brain damage and ADHD, liver damage, reproductive harms and other devastating diseases. Testing also demonstrated that these chemicals are readily released during contact with hands and can then be ingested—particularly on products that come into contact with food and eating utensils such as tablecloths, which were found to contain over 10% phthalate and up to 0.03% of the highly toxic heavy metal cadmium.

Even more concerning were the results of a number of items marketed to children such as clothing, toys, crafts and gaming headphones:

• Cartoon shoe charms, intended to accessorize Crocs, 1% lead and 13.2% phthalate (DEHP) by weight
• AquaFlo mermaid tail inflatable water toy, 6.3% phthalate (DBP, DIBP) by weight
• TX bike seat, 2.9% phthalate (DEHP) by weight
• Guess brand faux leather baseball cap, 10% phthalate (DEHP) by weight
• Pioneer rubber boots, 4.4% lead and 12% phthalate (DEHP) by weight
• Sewing kit bag, 0.03% cadmium and 13.6% phthalate (DEHP) by weight
• Sentry gaming headphones cord, 10.5% phthalate (DEHP) by weight

Regulators do not appear to be taking these toxic plastic exposures seriously. This testing clearly demonstrates that touching these products exposes people to high levels of toxic chemicals like DEHP but, when contacted by the testing lab about these product testing results, Health Canada’s written response was that touching these products “does not constitute a health risk.”

“There are such high levels of these harmful chemicals in these plastic products that they are wiping off onto our hands, where they can be easily ingested,” said Cassie Barker, Senior Program Manager for Toxics at Environmental Defence. “These are wildly toxic products that should never be sold in Canada or elsewhere. There is an urgent need for our regulators to acknowledge these harms, and close the toxic loopholes that plastics and product manufacturers use to continue putting us in harm’s way. Our kids deserve stronger rules that hold dirty industries and toxic product sellers accountable. The feds can act tomorrow to better regulate these chemicals and products—and they can show the world that they are serious about tackling toxic plastic.”

“The more we find out about what’s in the plastic products we touch, play with and eat from every day, the more we realize the urgent need to protect people from this toxic chemical soup,” said Karen Wirsig, Senior Program Manager for Plastics at Environmental Defence. “Plastic has been sold to us for years as a safe and sanitary material, but there is growing evidence that it’s not only destroying the environment, it’s threatening our health. The federal government must urgently address these toxic plastic products and the world must come together to create an effective global plastics treaty that eliminates these harmful chemicals and products.”

Products from brands such as Guess, Pioneer, and Sentry were tested. The products were purchased between April and August 2024 from various retailers including Winners, Guess, Michaels, Amazon, Walmart and Dollarama.

These results build on product testing conducted in spring 2024 that found highly-toxic PFAS chemicals coating children’s winter gloves.

Read more and see the full results here.

Background:

• 13 polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products were tested by the product testing lab Claigan’s, purchased from Winners, Guess, Michaels, Amazon, Walmart and Dollarama, between April and August of 2024
• 100% of products tested were found to have high levels of harmful phthalates and 46% (6) to have heavy metals such as lead and cadmium
• All products had significant exposure from DEHP based on hand to mouth route, and two products produced an exposure of roughly five times the allowable daily oral exposure (58 µg per day) for DEHP for infants
• Phthalates such as DEHP metabolize in the mother or child into MEHP, which induces apoptosis (cell death) of brain cells in early life leading to attention deficit, and endocrine disruption
• Testing was performed using NIOSH 9100 wipes with distilled water with 6% sebum oil, with exposure data generated using the methodology that 50% of the DEHP from the wipe’s simulated hand contact would be ingested via hand to mouth exposure.
• Note that Crocs products were not tested in this study, but the highly popular third-party shoe charms are marketed to be used in Crocs products
• 11 pairs of children’s and youth gloves were tested from the brands Columbia, Flapjack Kids, Helly Hansen, Hot Paws, Igloo, Kombi, Lolmot, The North Face, Outbound, and Ripzone, and purchased from Canadian Tire, Sport Chek, and Walmart in February of 2024, and 91% (10) contained PFAS, or “forever chemicals”
• Health Canada regulates lead, cadmium and certain phthalate levels in toys and child care articles under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, but there are no limits for these harmful chemicals in other products
• Polling shows that 4 out of 5 people living in Canada want action on plastics and PFAS, and are concerned about the health and environmental impacts of this toxic class of chemicals.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Lauren Thomas, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca