Hidden Chemicals in Children’s Toys

                                                                                               Posted by Bray Fedele

When considering the places cancer causing chemicals could be hiding, children’s toys are likely not the first category that comes to mind. Dr. Stapleton, a chemist at Duke University, was among the masses who did not previously consider toys for children we strenuously attempt to protect to be home to several “lurking” chemicals. After noticing a familiar flammability standard tag on her one year old’s play tunnel, Stapleton, being the resourceful chemist she is, immediately took a piece of the tunnel to her lab for analysis. Having already researched the effects and presence of flame retardants on human health, she was horrified by what she found.

Stapleton was shocked to find a flame retardant, chlorinated tris, which was banned for use by manufacturers in baby clothes years prior for its ability to alter DNA and even cause cancer. So what was this chemical doing so unquestioned in presumably safe baby toys?

Figure One: Chlorinated tris, a commonly used and toxic flame retardant.

 The use of flame retardants in different materials began in the 1970s in order to meet flammability requirements. Since then, chemists have raised several concerns about the role of formulations with bromine, chlorine, and phosphorus in the development of serious diseases and even death. These chemicals, once in fabrics and other home materials, have the potential to escape into the air and enter the human body as dust (usually by small children putting their hands and other materials in their mouths). These specific chemicals used in flame retardants have been associated with cancer, disruption of hormones, harm to the reproductive system, neurodevelopmental problems, lower I.Q., and even behavioral problems. In fact, brominated flame retardants have recently taken the crown as the major cause of I.Q. loss and intellectual disability in children.

Figure Two: Most common flame retardants used as of 2019. 

Despite these findings, flame retardants are loosely regulated, and have never been banned federally (as of 2020). Manufacturers easily find loopholes in producing their goods with harmful retardants by constantly changing the type, in order to stay ahead of scientists. For example, a chemist at the University of California successfully proved the association of brominated tris and cancer in 1977, but manufacturers quickly avoided the problem by switching to a close relative, chlorinated tris. Thus, scientists had to work at a rapid pace to constantly prove the detrimental effects of different flame retardants, and still are not fully able to ban their use entirely. There is a never ending list of flame retardants being used by manufacturers, making it almost impossible for scientists to identify them all, let alone test them for safety and reliability. In addition, the full discontinuation of toxic flame retardants is seemingly a complicated endeavor, as the use of chlorinated tris has been removed from the manufacturing process of children’s clothes over 40 years ago, yet it is still used in baby toys.

Figure Three: Types of brominated flame retardants. 

In 2017, scientists discovered that mothers had 15 times less flame retardant concentration in their urine than their children. Upon further investigation, there was an

association determined between the number of baby toys in the home and the concentration of flame retardants in the child’s urine (the more toys, the higher the concentration). Such findings are extremely worrisome considering the previously discovered health effects of flame retardants and their threat towards crucial development expected in the first year of life (and throughout adolescence). Scientists like Dr. Stapleton and many others have made it their mission to have these toxic chemicals banned from household items for good, but it is a slow and daunting process and ultimately needs federal support in order to ease the minds of parents and to save the lives of children.

Sources:

1. Gross, L. (2020, November 23). The harmful chemical lurking in your children's toys. The New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/parenting/home-flame-retardants-dangers.html.

2. The flame retardants market. FLAMERETARDANTS. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.flameretardants-online.com/flame-retardants/market.