By Cindy Skrzycki

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Just as consumers have crossed off their holiday shopping lists toys tainted with lead paint, another child-safety issue may become a season spoiler.

Consumer and environmental groups say the alarm raised over lead is helping them in their campaign to turn public attention to vinyl, a source of chemical additives that's used in consumer goods and toys, most of them imported.

For more than a decade, groups such as Greenpeace, the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, California, and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice in Falls Church, Virginia, have been hounding regulators, manufacturers and retailers about taking polyvinyl chloride, a ubiquitous plastic commonly known as PVC, out of products.

The plastic, versatile and cheap, has been used for decades in soft toys, building materials, medical products and countless other consumer goods.

In some cases, lead, cadmium or other heavy metals are added to prevent deterioration. To give the plastic flexibility, phthalates, a chemical additive, also goes into the mix.

``Lead is not the only dangerous chemical found in toys,'' said Rick Hind, legislative director for the Greenpeace Toxics Campaign. ``The widespread use of vinyl plastic in toys exposes millions of children to additional toxic metals and additives such as phthalates.'' Greenpeace is a worldwide group of environmental activists with headquarters in The Netherlands.

Follow the EU

Public-interest groups want regulators and retailers to eliminate products that contain metals and toxic chemicals. They point to a 2005 ban imposed by the European Union on the use of phthalates in toys and children's products.

Though much of the science is still being debated, activists said PVC causes developmental delays in children, and phthalates can cause cancer and problems with sexual development.

Frederick Locker, general counsel for the Toy Industry Association in New York, said misinformation and confusion about lead and toys have erroneously implicated PVC. He said many toys made with PVC are free of phthalates and lead.

However, with the public now paying close attention to the 25 million toys that have been recalled this year, proponents of eliminating PVC have gotten traction. They've also taken advantage of criticism of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and its lax oversight of toy safety to become something of a shadow regulator.

First State Law

The groups have used a combination of grassroots lobbying, negotiations, marketing pressure and legal threats to get companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Arkansas; Target Corp. of Minneapolis and Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California, to see the downside of vinyl in bibs, lunchboxes, backpacks and electronics.

They have been helped along by the recent passage in California of the first state law that bans the use of chemical plastic softeners in products for children under 3.

In October, Representative Darlene Hooley, an Oregon Democrat, introduced the Children's Chemical Risk Reduction Act, which would ban phthalates in children's products.

The U.S. chemical industry, which produced 15 billion pounds of vinyl in 2006, defends the safety of PVC. It said use of lead in the U.S. vinyl market has decreased, though that doesn't address imports from Asia.

The American Chemistry Council, which represents major chemical manufacturers, said in a report this year, ``There is no reliable evidence that any phthalate has ever caused any harm to any human in their 50-year history of use.''

Little Risk?

The industry points to government studies that looked at phthalates and found little risk.

In 1998, the Consumer Product Safety Commission declared that ``few, if any, children are at risk'' from a particular phthalate used in teethers and rattles. Still, as a precaution, it asked the industry to find a substitute for products children put in their mouths. A report commissioned by the agency also found in 2001 that the majority of children were at ``minimal to non-existent risk of injury'' from phthalates in toys.

In 2005, the CPSC tested vinyl lunchboxes for lead content and found no hazard, though environmental groups had found the products far exceeded the federal standard.

The agency also denied a petition in 2003 filed by environmental groups asking for a ban on PVC in toys and products for children under age 5. Four years later, the CPSC asked an industry standard-setting group to come up with a voluntary rule on children's exposure to lead in PVC.

`Poison Plastic'

Target was the latest subject of a grassroots anti-PVC lobbying campaign, led by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

Michael Schade, PVC campaign coordinator for the group, said thousands of letters and petitions went to company officials; some 230 press conferences were held; and activists attended the company's 2007 shareholders' meeting.

The group also staged an event across from an Albany, California, store where a two-story, plastic rubber duck was blown up, advertising that Target needed to eliminate ``poison plastic.'' Groups marched through the store, handing out flyers.

Early last month, Target committed to taking PVC out of 88 percent of its own brands by next spring and reducing PVC packaging. ``We would have been exploring these alternatives regardless of recent events,'' said Susan Giesen, a Target spokeswoman.

Apple In Crosshairs

Apple came into the PVC crosshairs in October when Greenpeace said it found phthalates in the soft plastic that coats headphone wires for the iPhone.

Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said the company started phasing out PVC 12 years ago and will be PVC-free by the end of next year.

Because of marketing pressure and, in some cases, a desire to be green, a growing number of companies are looking at PVC.

The Center for Health Environment and Justice said companies such as Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Nike Inc. of Beaverton, Oregon, have found substitutes along with dozens of others.

A Nov. 16 article in Plastics News, an industry trade publication, summed up it up best: ``There's no way to spin this -- it's bad news for vinyl.''

(Cindy Skrzycki is a regulatory columnist for Bloomberg News.)

To contact the writer of this column: Cindy Skrzycki at cskrzycki@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 4, 2007 00:05 EST

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