5 Controversial and Potentially Toxic Chemicals in Consumer Products

As media coverage over toxic substances in consumer products, such as toys, cell phones, jewelry and cosmetics, grows, public outcry and regulatory action have hit a number of chemicals regularly found in our ordinary products. Five of these substances continue to be in the news, prompting either recall by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) or controversy over their continual presence in many products.

Lead

Widely known for its toxic properties, lead continues to be a concern in a number of products, including toys and food contact materials. In 2008, the President Bush signed into law the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), lowering the allowable level of lead in children’s products. Some jurisdictions in the U.S. have instituted tighter controls on lead in products, including California with specific requirements on lead in  jewelry and lead in plumbing materials and Illinois where warnings are required on children’s products should lead be present as low as 40 parts per million.

Despite years of regulatory reform and media coverage of lead poisoning from children’s products and food contact materials, the CPSC continues to recall products for high levels of lead.

Cadmium

Another toxic metal known for its deadly effects, cadmium is restricted in the United States in toys following the implementation of the CPSIA. A wider restriction on the substance exists in the European Union where the substances is banned in  all plastics.

While this substance gets very little press coverage or attention from the CPSC, cadmium remains a safety issue for consumer products with applications in pigments, in the stabilization of plastics and the inhibition of corrosion on other metals. This substance is also known as a contaminant in the food supply due to the application of industrial sludges as fertilizer and pollution caused by zinc and iron smelting and mining.

Common products that may contain cadmium include products with bright red or yellow pigments, electroplated metals, plastics and cadmium-nickel batteries.

Barium

A lesser known, toxic metal, barium is restricted in the United States in toys thanks to the CPSIA. Barium is known to have a variety of harmful effects including gastrointestinal effects, neurological damage, vomiting, vertigo, depression of the central nervous system and death.

Products that may contain barium include inks and pigments based on barium sulfates, oftentimes associated with a brownish-yellow color, like that taking on the color of wood grain on particle board.

Phthalates

Also regulated in toys by the CPSIA, phthalates are a group of highly controversial substances, typically associated with soft plastics, inks and cosmetics. These substances are suspected of disrupting how the body uses hormones.

Following a controversial study published in Environmental Health Perspectives citing that more than 90 percent of the US population has traces of these substances in their bodies, the European Union banned six of the substances in toys and childcare articles. This ban eventually spread to the State of California by way of assembly bill, AB 1108, and then to the US Federal government upon the adoption of the CPSIA

Bisphenol A

Perhaps the most hotly contested substances found in many consumer products, Bisphenol A (BPA) has a chemical structure very similar to estrogen and is known to disrupt how the body processes hormones. The substance is typically only found in products made from hard plastics.

BPA is controlled in food contact materials in Europe, but relatively loosely regulated in the United States with limited bans in children’s food contact products in several US States and municipalities. The lack of regulatory action to strengthen restrictions on the substance in both the EU and the US is highlighted by reports by both governments citing a lack of information on the substance’s harmful effects.

Despite these reports, in 2009, worldwide media attention focused in on a study which showed that several hundred Chinese workers exhibited sexual dysfunction caused by acute exposure to the BPA. In response to the study, the European Commission and the US Food and Drug Administration announced that they will reevaluate the safety of this substance in consumer products.