Children's Toys

I am listening to the NPR program on the banning of phthalates in childrens' toys just after the story on the courts deciding that thiomersal in vaccines are not causing developmental problems (specifically autism) in children. Now I feel compelled to vent.

Children are, without a doubt, the future of our society. Instead of not using proven toxins in products for children, lets only use known safe materials to make products for children. We are facing some pretty serious problems in our near future, it is a good idea to explicitly protect our children, they will be the ones who solve the problems we are creating today, if anyone will.

It seems that the agencies that are supposed to protect us from commercial interests have been maneuvered into the position where they are actually protecting the industries they are supposed to regulate. Through a history of legal actions and court decisions, most governmental agencies have been restricted to only being able to control materials and chemicals that are known to harm.

Now that I have that off my chest, I suggest a simple answer: Buy toys and products made of natural things for children. There are many toxins in nature, however, not many of them are new and most are well characterized. I cannot think of one natural material used in manufacturing that isn't either relatively safe or already regulated.

We don't know what plastics and other new materials do to our health (yes, we should be very weary of emerging nanomatreials) and it looks more and more like there are some serious developmental consequences with many of them. If you don't know what it is, don't eat it or give it to your kids.