Groups ask U.S. to ban vinyl toys for small children

Twelve consumer, environmental and religious organizations asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday to ban vinyl toys for small children, four days after Canadian officials advised parents of small children to throw away vinyl teethers and rattles, because of possible kidney and liver damage.

In addition, 28 members of Congress signed a letter to President Clinton asking whether the Commerce Department was lobbying to keep European markets open to vinyl toys, and urging that the lobbying stop if it was doing so. Several European countries have put restrictions on the use of vinyl in toys, partly in response to a sustained campaign by Greenpeace.Even though scientists do not agree on whether vinyl toys are safe, some toymakers and marketers have stopped selling them. Toys R Us said this week it had removed toys with vinyl that are intended to be mouthed by infants.

But toy manufacturers argued that the material was safe. As a practical matter, manufacturers said, teethers and some other small objects made by injection moulding can be made from vinyl-free plastics; more complex shapes, like rubber ducks, cannot.

The material at issue is polyvinylchloride, or PVC, which is familiar to consumers as a material used for pipes and other rigid parts, mixed with a "plasticizer," to make it soft.