AUGUSTA – Representatives of environmental and health organizations said Monday that 20 of 24 common children’s products they tested came back positive for a chemical increasingly under fire by health groups.

Members of the groups used the report to keep the pressure on state legislators debating a bill that creates a system to identify and eventually ban potentially toxic chemicals from consumer products.

Members of the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine purchased two dozen children’s products – from teethers and toys to shampoo – from chain stores and had the items tested for the presence of a type of chemical additive known as phthalates.

In common use for several decades, phthalates are chemical additives used to make vinyl products more soft and flexible. Phthalates also are used to enhance fragrances in perfumes, soap and other personal care products.

While manufacturers and the chemical industry insist phthalates are safe, a growing number of health and environmental groups claim the chemicals can affect development of children’s reproductive systems and pose other risks.

Twenty of the 24 products tested positive for the presence of phthalates. Fifteen of those products would be banned from sale in the European Union because they contained phthalates at levels exceeding 1,000 parts per million. Those same products also would be banned under legislation recently passed in California and Washington.

During a press conference in the State House, Amanda Sears of the Environmental Health Strategy Center held up a standard-looking plastic ball in which phthalates made up 53.7 percent of the ball’s ingredients, according to the testing.

Another product, a vinyl mattress cover used in cribs, contained 34.5 percent phthalates, while a baby doll with a soft head contained 46.5 percent phthalates.

Sears said giving such toys to children was like parents saying, “Here kids, go play with some chemicals.”

Monday’s press conference came on the same day the Legislature was expected to begin debating a bill that would strengthen state controls over potentially toxic chemicals used in consumer products.

The bill, LD 2048, would direct the Maine Department of Environmental Protection 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 DEP, through its rule-making board, would designate such chemicals as “priority chemicals” that must be disclosed to the consumer by the manufacturer. Finally, the bill would allow the DEP to restrict the sale of products containing these priority chemicals if safer alternatives exist.

“Why does Maine have to do this?” said Matt Prindiville, toxics project director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “Because of 30 years of failure at the federal level to protect us from the worst of the worst chemicals.”

Representatives of the chemical industry as well as manufacturers have defended the federal regulatory process and accused groups of cherry-picking scientific studies to support their campaigns against phthalates and other chemicals.

“There is no reliable evidence that any phthalate has ever caused any harm to any human in their fifty-year history of use,” reads one statement on a Web site operated by the Phthalate Esters Panel of the American Chemistry Council. “Phthalates are one of the most thoroughly tested families of compounds in use today. An immense amount of information on their safety profiles is available to users.”

Nonetheless, some U.S. manufacturers are removing phthalates from their products in response to the growing controversy. As an example, Sears held up a package of vinyl bibs whose packaging advertised the fact that phthalates were not used. Sears said she bought the bibs at a big-box store.

“So they can make these products without these chemicals,” Sears said.