EU Confirms PVC Toy Hazards As Industry Takes Greenpeace to Cour

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WHILE PVC INDUSTRY TAKES GREENPEACE TO COURT ON SOFT PVC BABY
TOYS, EU SCIENTISTS CONFIRM THEIR HAZARDS

Amsterdam, 13 February 1998 --- While the court case initiated
by the PVC industry in Italy against Greenpeace's protest on
soft PVC baby toys was opened last Wednesday, a Scientific
Committee of the European Union published today in Brussels its
position that soft PVC toys for infants release unacceptable
quantities of hazardous substances (1). 

EVC and Solvay, among the largest producers of PVC in Europe,
decided to sue the Italian branch of the environmental
organisation for US$ 27 million because of its international
protest against the sale of soft PVC baby toys, claiming that
Greenpeace's protest is unjustifiable and is undermining the
reputation of PVC and its producers, benefitting competing
industrial sectors.

At the same time, an EU Scientific Committee stated that
exposure of babies to three softeners added to PVC baby toys -
the phthalates DINP, DEHP and DNOP - gave reason for concern.
Doses of all three of these phthalates from soft PVC toys would
exceed the margin of safety (2). Importantly, DINP and DEHP were
found by Greenpeace, in its global survey, to be the most
frequently used softeners in soft PVC toys, and the ones used at
the highest concentrations (3).

"These findings vindicate what Greenpeace has been saying all
along:soft PVC toys are a direct source of hazardous chemicals
to small children. It now appears that the leaching of
phthalates is closely related to the quantities in which they
are used in toys - any chemical additives present in PVC in
significant quantities, such as phthalates, may also leach out
and pose a hazard", said Axel Singhofen of Greenpeace. "It is
not a matter of finding less hazardous softeners, but of chosing
alternatives to PVC which do not require the addition of
softeners in the first place".

A draft legal ban on baby toys requiring softeners has already
been notified to the European Commission by Austria, and
recommendations for voluntary withdrawals of soft PVC toys
intended to be put in the mouth of small children have been made
by the Danish, Dutch, German and Belgian Health Authorities. 

"These voluntary measures are welcome but are not enough - now
the Commission must act swiftly and take legal measures to
recall all soft PVC baby toys and prohibit their marketing in
the future", added Singhofen.

In the light of the wide recognition of the health hazards of
soft PVC toys, the injunction by the PVC industry seems like a
desperate move to stop Greenpeace from denouncing these very
hazards. "The Court will have to decide what comes first: the
profits of the PVC industry or the protection of the health of
our children", stated Fabrizio Fabbri of Greenpeace Italy. "If
the PVC industry succeeds in its attempts to prevent Greenpeace
from warning the public, this will set a disastrous precedent
against freedom of speech and the public right to know about
exposure to health hazards".

The entire life cycle of PVC plastic is a polluting process. Its
production involves highly toxic precursors and generates
hazardous emissions and wastes. When burned in accidental fires
or waste incinerators, PVC is a significant source of dioxin and
secondary hazardous wastes. 

end
Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org

NOTES
(1) On 17 November 1997, the European Commision gave a mandate
to the Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the
Environment to look at the impact on children's health by soft
PVC toys. The Scientific Committee formulated a position on 9
February 1998. Their position can be consulted on the Web at :
www.europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg24/spc.html

(2) While the Committee noted that human exposure should be at
least 100 times less (= margin of safety) than the
no-observed-adverse-effect-levels (NOAEL) established in animal
experiments, exposure to these phthalates was found to be to
only 3 to 62 times less than the NOAEL. 

(3) "Determination of the Composition and Quantities of
Phthalate Ester Additives in PVC Children's Toys", Department of
Biological Sciences, University of Exeter, September 1997.