Richard Gottlieb

Phthalates

I remember the first time I heard about Phthalates. I was consulting with a European company a number of years ago when they announced to me that they had removed it from all of their products. It was a new European law and they proudly printed on each product “”No Phthalates.” 

I of course, struggled with how it was pronounced but also with whether there was actually something wrong with it.  I was told it was a plastics softener and that some researchers found that constant contact with it could cause hormonal damage and possibly illness when the child grows up.   That sounded pretty scary but as I looked into it I found that the methodology and results of the research were in question.

I returned to the US and began telling people about this company’s position on Phthalates only to be greeted by blank stares. No one cared because no one had ever heard of Phthalates. It was obviously perceived as one of those things that the “overly cautious” Europeans cared about. It was not an American issue.

Well it is now. California, effective January 1, 2009, has just banned Phthalates. With a population of approximately 40 million people, California has a huge impact on corporate decision making. A number of states, including large population centers like New York and Florida, are considering similar legislation.

Arguments against banning Phthalates have centered around their being based on bad science. Well, that may well be the case, but it may be time to give up on this fight. The toy industry has fought the good fight but recent product recalls put the toy industry in a weak position to be battling on what some may see as the wrong side of a safety issue. In addition, damage control for our battered industry may necessitate our thinking more in terms of our new visibility to the consuming public and our inability to keep positions like this within the arcane world of science and bureaucrats. For the foreseeable future we will need to pick our battles very carefully.

Posted by Richard Gottlieb on October 19, 2007 | Comments (0)