Group backs bills against toxins in toys

AUGUSTA – Concerned parents joined health and environmental organizations Thursday in urging state lawmakers to approve legislation aimed at removing potentially toxic chemicals from children’s toys and other household products.

The recall of millions of lead-tainted toys last holiday season heightened public fears about the safety of imported toys found on most toy store shelves. But concern is also growing nationwide about a list of chemicals legally added to toys, shampoos, baby bottles and many other products used by children.

Critics of the chemical industry claim that some of these additives, many of which are not disclosed by manufacturers, can disrupt a child’s development or lead to cancer and other health problems later in life.

On Thursday, the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee heard arguments from a broad coalition of organizations and state agencies that claim the federal government is not doing its part to protect public health when it comes to chemical additives.

They want the state to ban the sale of products made with additives that make it onto government lists of “chemicals of high concern.”

Other states, including Massachusetts and Washington, are also considering bills to curtail the use of some common chemicals in consumer products.

“As has been made abundantly clear, we simply cannot rely on the current federal regulatory system to provide adequate consumer protection regarding chemicals in children’s products available in Maine,” David Littell, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, told the committee. “We have determined that taking action on the state level is essential in order to protect our citizens.”

Representatives of the chemical industry, meanwhile, defended the existing federal regulations and sought to counter portrayals of the industry as willing to sacrifice consumer safety in the interest of profits.

“We are concerned about safety,” said Stephen Rosario, representing the American Chemistry Council. “And we are concerned about children. We are concerned about what we make and how we make it.”

Two chemicals increasingly under fire from health and environmental organizations are phthalates and bisphenol-A. Used in plastics made from PVC as well as in some fragranced products, phthalates have been linked to reproductive problems in animals. The European Union has banned use of phthalates, as has California for some products.

Critics claim that bisphenol-A, which is used in some baby bottles and other plastics, is a hormone disrupter that can also affect the reproductive system.

Elisa Boxer-Cook said she wasn’t overly concerned about household toxins until she and her infant son fell seriously ill from fumes released by chemically treated materials in the family’s brand new home. Since then, she said, she has discovered that many products she gave to her son, including baby bottles and common children’s shampoos, contained some of the chemicals likely to be targeted by state legislation.

“I didn’t know,” said Boxer-Cook, whose hometown wasn’t immediately available. “I feel like, as a parent, I deserve to know that every time my son was drinking he was sucking in a potentially cancer-causing chemical.”

Two bills have been submitted to the committee, each of which would direct the DEP to target a small number of high-concern chemicals that have been identified as carcinogens or endocrine disrupters or shown up on other states’ or governments’ lists of toxins.

The bills, which are likely to be combined into one, would allow the DEP through its rule-making board to designate chemicals as “priority chemicals” that must be disclosed to the consumer by the manufacturer.

Both bills would also allow the DEP to restrict the sale of products containing these priority chemicals if safer alternatives exist.

Sen. Ted Koffman, a Bar Harbor Democrat, introduced LD 2210 at the request of the administration of Gov. John Baldacci. The bill grew out of a governor’s task force on toxic chemicals.

House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, has introduced the other bill, LD 2048.

“The vast majority of the public doesn’t have the information they need about toxic chemicals, especially when it comes to children’s products,” Pingree said during a press conference held Thursday before the public hearing. “What we are doing here today is trying to put this issue at the top of the radar screen for parents, and we hope that Washington is listening.”

It was clear Thursday that the chemical industry as well as manufacturers are watching. Representatives of the Toy Industry Association, the Personal Care Products Council and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce spoke against the bill.

Rosario of the American Chemistry Council said that while the existing federal regulatory system, known as the Toxic Substances Control Act, is not perfect, it can already address all of the issues in the two bills.

He said representatives of his organization and chemical manufacturers would attend committee work sessions to offer their technical expertise.

“We appreciate the sincerity of the advocates of this,” Rosario said. “We disagree with them.”