Toy firms under fire over toxic Christmas

With toy firms looking to cash in on the Christmas shopping boom, pressure on them to remove hazardous chemicals from their products stepped up a notch today with the launch of a web site designed to allow consumers to easily check if their products contain harmful chemicals.

The Healthy Toys site is based on research from US environmental group The Ecology Center that assessed 1,200 popular children's toys for toxic chemicals capable of harming human health or the environment, including lead, PVC, cadmium, arsenic, bromine and tin. It allows consumers to search by product name and gain information on its chemical content.

"The government is not testing for toxic chemicals in toys, and too many manufacturers are not self-regulating, so we created the nation's first toy database to help inform and empower consumers," said Tracey Easthope, director of The Ecology Center's environmental health project. "Ultimately, consumers need to compel the federal government and toy manufacturers to eliminate dangerous chemicals from toys."

The research uncovered a worryingly lax approach to harmful chemicals across much of the toy industry. It found that 35 per cent of the products tested contained lead, with 17 per cent exceeding the 600ppm level that marks the recall standard for lead in paint; over half contained PVC, which is accused of causing environmental health problems throughout its lifecycle; and just under three per cent contained cadmium, a proven carcinogen, to a level of more than 100ppm.

However, The Ecology Center claimed that the research provided evidence that "manufacturers can make toys free of unnecessary toxic chemicals", claiming that 28 per cent of the products tested did not contain any lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury or PVC.

The toy industry has been dogged by controversy over hazardous chemicals this year after several high-profile brands, including Mattel and Wal-Mart, issued recalls and the US state of California began legal proceedings against 20 companies accused of selling toys containing illegal quantities of lead.