OTTAWA — Conceding a decade-old voluntary ban on hormone-disrupting chemicals in children's toys hasn't worked, Health Canada announced Friday new regulations requiring toy companies to get phthalates out of soft vinyl toys.
The regulations will prevent the use of six phthalates in bath toys, teethers, rattles and other children's products. The chemical additive is known to cause reproductive harm in children.
Health Canada is taking the step after its own market survey last year found the widespread presence of phthalates, a chemical family used to soften plastic toys, in soft plastic toys and other items for young children that are likely to be mouthed, like bath toys.
The results, released to Canwest News Service under Access to Information, found that in three-quarters of the items for sale in Canada — 54 of 72 — the elevated levels ranged from 0.2 to 39.9 per cent by weight of the plastic known as polyvinyl chloride.
A similar ban has been in place in theEuropean Union since 1999, where phthalates concentrations cannot exceed 0.1 per cent in children's toys and other products. A ban in the UnitedStates came into effect in February.
The new regulations in Canada will also effectively ban lead in these children's products.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Life/pht...159/story.html 
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