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

13 February 1998

Amsterdam -- 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Axel Singhofen,Greenpeace European Unit, t. +32 2 280 19 87
- Fabrizio Fabbri, Greenpeace Italy, t. +39 6 572 999 24
- Madeleine Cobbing, Greenpeace International, t. +44 171 865 81 50

(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.