Canadian health authority, Health Canada (www.hc-sc.gc.ca), has followed up on plans to ban phthalates in plasticisers used to make children’s toys. The new regulations to be in force from June of this year restrict to no more than 0.1% the content of six phthalates – DEHP, DBP, BBP, DINP, DIDP and DNOP – in toys and child-care products for children under four years of age. Three of the phthalates will also be restricted in products for children over four. The ban has been under consultation since 2009, after tests in 2008 found that about three-quarters of the soft PVC toys on retailers’ shelves contained up to 39.9% of the plasticisers by weight of the polymer. Some retailers have already phased out the products.

The Canadian ban met with approval not only by environmentalists but also by the plastics industry, as the country that pushed ahead of the rest of the world in banning bisphenol A (BPA) in products for children – for the latest coverage see Plasteurope.com of 18.10.2010 – is seen to be lagging the rest of the western world in waking up to a possible phthalates problem.

Rick Smith, executive director of Toronto advocacy group Environmental Defence, said the new legislation – which his organisation would like to see extended to other consumer products – “will help protect children and put the country in line with other nations.” Mark Badger, CEO of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (www.plastics.ca), remarked that while the industry grouping “does not believe the chemicals cause harm,” the changes will ensure that Canada doesn’t become a dumping ground for imported toys containing phthalates.

In the US, major retail chains phased out phthalates in toys at the end of 2008. Some states have wider bans and the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov) last year added phthalates to its Chemicals of Concern list, designating these as well as several flame retardants and a number of other chemicals as in need of further scrutiny – see Plasteurope.com of 11.01.2010.

Toward this goal, EPA has developed new criteria to evaluate potential threats. The agency’s Design for the Environment (DfE) programme will work with industry, environmental groups and academia to assess chemicals that could threaten the environment or health and identify safer alternatives. The “DfE Alternative Assessments” are to be conducted for BPA, phthalates, decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) and other flame retardants. EPA said efforts to develop alternatives to BPA in thermal paper used in cash register receipts are “well under way.” DecaBDE is being phased out in the US up to 2013 – see Plasteurope.com of 11.01.2010.