KEY POINTS:
If you were given the job of redesigning Santa's workshop, it would be a top idea to give the elves white coats and change the function of the grotto space to a full-on testing laboratory.
Since last year some 47 million children's toys around the world have been
recalled.
True, some are recalled on old-fashioned safety grounds (loose parts, etc), but the bulk of recalls are now attributable to potentially dangerous chemicals.
Welcome to the era of the toxic toy box. You can see how it would be good to remove ambiguities over polyvinyl chloride (PVC), cadmium, lead and phthalates such as tributyltin (TBT) at source, in Lapland.
Certain phthalates - the stuff that makes plastics pliable - have been banned for use in toys across the EU since 2005, after research seemed to show they could inhibit the development of male sex hormones.
But nobody should think the new laws are not watertight - only some phthalates are banned. A loophole means that as long as potentially dangerous chemicals are not used in the outer part of the toy, they can still be included elsewhere.
And let's not kid ourselves that every batch of toys is tested. But in Europe at least you'd hope that things have moved on from the 1997 report that tested 71 toys and found they contained between 10 and 40 per cent by weight of phthalates.
All of which makes me worry about old toys. Because in these fiscally challenging times there are lots of pre-loved items about that would make great presents. But is it a good idea to rehome these castoffs in your toy cupboard when they predate toxicity laws?
A big warning sign when buying a new toy should be that pungent smell of new plastic (ie, PVC). Put them outside for a while so they can lose that new plastic smell, but not in direct sunlight, as phthalates migrate when heated up.
If old plastic toys still have that new-plastic smell, I would definitely give them a miss, and I wouldn't buy second-hand plastic toys for small children, particularly of teething age.
Plastics aren't as stable as we had previously thought, polymers degrade, and plastic products can begin to shrink and become sticky even in normal room heat. So make sure elderly plastic toys aren't showing too much sign of discolouration or stickiness.
Before you buy old toys, check Greenpeace's previous reports on toxicity in toy brands, such as the 2003 PVC Toy Report (go to www.
greenpeace.org), which grades mainstream toymakers, so you can avoid the worst from that era.
But if you take basic precautions, old toys can make perfect presents.
You're saving them from landfill, where plastics like PVC will leach toxins into the ground and groundwater.
According to conservation expert Professor Ian Swingland, 41 per cent of toys given on Christmas Day (in about 800,000 tonnes of packaging) will end up in bits or in landfill within three months.
Any working castoffs are the lucky ones. Rescue what you can.
- OBSERVER