What's a Christmas without a scare? 1998's comes courtesy of Ralph Nader and Greenpeace, who this shopping season have managed to deprive many thousands of teething babies of their heart's desire, something to bite on. The Scrooges are responsible for the removal of vinyl teething toys from retailers' shelves. Pacifiers, duckies, rattles--all have disappeared. The supposed danger here are vinyl-softening chemicals called phthalates in the toys.
Now, phthalates, pronounced THAL-ates, have been used in toys and other products from hoses to nipples without incident lo these 40 years. And, as Mike Gough, a scientist at the Cato Institute, points out, we know a lot more about phthalates than we do about other chemicals. We know, for example, that they cause cancer in rat livers when they interact with a certain rat enzyme. We also know that they don't cause cancer in human or monkey livers. That's because primates don't have that cancer enzyme.
The "Perception Is Reality" School of Science being the dominant one in our era, none of this matters. The Great Phthalate Hysteria of 1998 got its start where so many hysterias do--in Europe. Last summer European environmentalists began warning consumers in England and on the continent that toys were poisoning toddlers. Companies began preparing write-offs, and families from Deauville to Oporto jettisoning toys. Greenpeace protesters occupied a hall at Rotterdam Harbor to stop the loading of the dread chemicals. The only sane voice around was the Economist magazine, which noted that "it remains curious that the same evidence about phthalates arouses so much less concern in America."
Alas, not for long. By September the panic had made it to these shores, with the Naderites and their various PIRGs in the van and Mattel announcing it would cease shipping phthalate-ridden toys in the future. Hey, the silicone breast implants turned out to be a bust scientifically, but not before billions of dollars went up the legal flue. Why take chances with phthalates?
Throughout October, the fans flamed, and by early November Toys "R" Us was pulling teethers and pacifiers from stores. Within days, "concerns in the marketplace" had prompted Gerber Products Inc. to do the same, even though, as the firm noted, "credible scientific evidence supports the safety of the compound." A bit later, Greenpeace USA and the National Environmental Trust were appealing to Washington to control phthalates.
By early December, the Consumer Products Safety Commission was ready to rule. Its decree? No ban for phthalates. But the CPSC also announced that "given the number of uncertainties, we are--as a precaution--asking the toy industry to take certain steps to reformulate their products intended to go into children's mouths." That was enough to drive the rest of the phthalate-ridden objects from the shelves. In other words, with their 1998 phthalate feat, the officials at the Consumer Products Safety Commission have achieved a bureaucrat's dream: They have managed to force a market to change without ever officially ordering it to do so. So, Merry Christmas, even as the hysteria-mongers roll science and its judgments back to the days of elves and flying reindeer.
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