Thursday 17 February 2011

How to choose toxic free toys - handy guides in several languages

WECF has put together essential information in small guides. There are tips for everyday life consumer decisions when buying toys for children. The guide is available in several languages, such as Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Dutch or Macedonia. The newest translation is in Estonian. You can find them on the WECF website.

65.000 reasons for better chemicals!

Children are exposed to a cocktail of chemicals every day; from the indoor climate, from the food they eat, and from the products they use. This leaflet from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency gives eight adivces on how to deal in your every day life with the knowledge about endocrine disruptors and children. It can be downloaded here.

Toxic chemicals in toys - new articel

The articel "Toxic chemicals in toys and Childern's Products: Limitations of current Responses and Recommendations for Government and Industry" by Monica Becker, Sally Edwards and Rachel Massey was published in the environmental science and technology feature.
How are governments, industry and NGOs reacting to the fact that toxic chemicals are found in toys and other childerns products? What could one of them do to tackle this thread?
These are some of the questions the authors try to answer.

Toys in Vietnam

The interest in the toxic toys issue keeps me busy - even in my holidays. In Vietnam I read about the fact, that 85 % of toys are smuggeled from China. No way to judge the safety of the toys for parents - and not even for authorities. Therefore the Vietnamese authorities created a system of "safety stamps" which have to be applied to every toy before selling. See article below.
Hope that the enforcement works, so...
Here you see a toys store in the old city centre of Hanoi.
Sonja Haider