A report sponsored by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States reveals that thousands of children’s products sold in the State of Washington contain toxic chemicals, including mercury, cadmium, cobalt, and phthalate chemicals.
In 2008, the Washington State Legislature passed the Children’s Safe Products Act, requiring manufacturers of children’s products to report the presence of 66 Chemicals of High Concern to Children in such products, the levels of the chemicals, the category of product containing them, and the reason for their use. Manufacturers began reporting in 2012, and the database can be accessed at the Washington State Department of Ecology website.
More than 5,000 products have been reported so far, including children’s apparel, toys, bedding, and infant products, containing chemicals such as mercury, cadmium, cobalt, and antimony, known to cause cancer and reproductive harm; phthalate chemicals, known to cause reproductive harm; and solvents such as ethylene glycol, known to cause reproductive harm. Children are at higher risk from such chemicals because of their small body mass, still-developing bodies, and tendency to mouth objects, which expose them to higher amounts of the chemical. The chemicals may also escape from the products into household dust and indoor air, resulting in further exposure to everyone in the home, including children.
The most-reported category was children’s clothing, which was reported over 2,000 times, followed by children’s footwear, reported almost 1,000 times. The most-reported chemicals were cobalt and cobalt compounds, followed by ethylene glycol and antimony and antimony compounds.
California’s Proposition 65 requires companies selling products that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm to first provide California consumers with a health hazard warning. A list of the chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer or reproductive harm is available on the website of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment; many of the chemicals mentioned in this report are already known carcinogens and reproductive toxicants in California, including mercury, antimony, cobalt, and several phthalate chemicals.
Citizen enforcer clients of The Chanler Group have discovered the presence of many such chemicals in children’s products such as toys, children’s clothing, and children’s footwear and have initiated enforcement actions, leading to civil penalties and product reformulation to remove the toxic chemicals.
The Chanler Group represents citizen enforcers who, acting in the public interest, commence actions against businesses offering products for sale in California that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing the health hazard warning required by Proposition 65. Citizen enforcers bringing Proposition 65 actions in the public interest may obtain a Court Judgment imposing civil penalties, an injunction requiring reformulation of products, and/or provision of health hazard warnings. The Chanler Group has represented citizen enforcers of Proposition 65 for more than twenty years.
See below to read the full report.
