Stop Toxic Toys

What's New

On October 14, 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law Assemblywoman Fiona Ma's Stop Toxic Toys Bill (AB 1108). This new law prohibits the manufacture, sale, and distribution of children's toys and feeding products that contain phthalates.

Since our victory last year, California's own Senator Diane Feinstein introduced similar legislation that passed the U.S. Senate in March as part of reform efforts targeted at the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

For tips on how to reduce your child's exposure to toxic chemicals, click here.

How You Can Help

Thank the governor for signing AB 1108 into law.

Report Documents Toxics in Baby Bottles

Environment California Research and Policy Center released a report, “Toxic Baby Bottles,” showing that a hormone-disrupting toxic chemical linked to developmental, neural, and reproductive problems—bisphenol A—leaches from clear, plastic baby bottles into liquids contained in the bottles. Bisphenol A is linked to numerous adverse health effects, including early onset puberty, behavioral problems, impaired immune system, obesity and diabetes, and cancer.  Environment California Research and Policy Center worked with an independent laboratory to analyze five of the most popular brands of baby bottles on the market to determine whether bisphenol A leached from the bottles. All five bottle brands leached bisphenol A at levels founds to cause harm in numerous laboratory animal studies. More.

For tips on how to protect your children from exposure to toxic chemicals, click here.  

Another Scientific Study Links Chemicals in Kids’ Products to Long-Term Health Effects

A few years ago, scientists discovered that exposure to bisphenol A prevents chromosomes from lining up correctly, resulting in chromosome sorting errors like the kind that cause Down syndrome. While a variety of possible events could also lead to the same genetic outcome, the fact that a common chemical can cause this effect is cause for concern.

 A recent study shows that exposure to bisphenol A can lead to chromosomal abnormalities that affect future generations as well.1 This is because female mammals, including mice and humans, form their eggs while still in their mother’s womb. The study shows that exposure to bisphenol A by mice during pregnancy disturbs early egg development in the unborn female fetuses. When these fetuses reach adulthood, the disturbance is translated into an increase in chromosomally-abnormal eggs and embryos. Chromosome abnormalities are the largest known cause of spontaneous miscarriage in people. Thus, eggs that will become a female’s grandchildren are affected through in utero exposure to bisphenol A.

[1] M. Susiarjo, T.J. Hassold, E. Freeman and P.A. Hunt, “Bisphenol A Exposure In Utero Disrupts Early Oogenesis in the Mouse,” PLoS Genetics 3(1): e5 doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030005, 2007.