Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift? Go for Glee with Phthalate Free

February 11th, 2011. By Hunter West

Can we talk? 

Okay, Valentine’s Day is coming up on Monday and much as we like to think that the Big Red Day is all about flowers and chocolates, gushy Hallmark cards and little else, sex toy and adult novelty shops do a booming business leading up to Valentine’s Day. 

No, you don’t have to close your eyes. It’s not like we have samples. But face it, for some people nothing says ‘I love you’ like a big piece of rubber…even better if it glows in the dark. 

Which brings us to health issues. In January the National Post up in Canada carried a story about the Canadian sex toy retail industry crying foul over the fact that Health Canada does not regulate phthalates in adult sex toys in the same fashion as children’s toys. 

(We believe the same is true in this country, but of course Canadians are much more randy this time of year than we are—what else is there to do up there when the snow banks are higher than your Honda and it’s ten below zero outside? Ya know why they won all those medals in the Olympics last year, don’t you? All those indoor sports…). 

Health Canada, the Canadian health regulator akin to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in this country, announced last month that it was putting new restrictions in place that would lower concentrations of six phthalates by June of this year. Lest you think ‘phthalate’ is a new position you haven’t tried yet, in reality it’s a chemical that is used to make rubber compounds soft and squishy—which is the last thing you want to have happen in the real experience but quite acceptable in sex toys. 

All kidding aside, the gurus at Health Canada have a point. Phthalates have been voluntarily removed from pacifiers and baby bottle nipples for some time due to personal injury concerns about the risks associated with phthalates and reproduction and development of children less than four years of age. 

To that end, it has been determined, according to the National Post, that objects do not release phthalates merely through touch. However, they can release the vilified chemical into saliva when a child sucks on a pacifier. 

Or, for that matter, anything the child is playing with. To that end, a rubber duckie is not designed to go into a child’s mouth. However, putting things in their mouths is what children do—including rubber duckies and anything made of soft rubber into which phthalates are injected to make then soft. (By the way, according to Big Teaze Toys (tagline, “Toys that Play with You”), I Rub My Duckie (shown) is not only phthalate free, but has appeared on The View. And no, this isn’t an endorsement).

Manufacturers thought they were doing the kids a favor by taking out the rigidity of rubber, so the toys would be more fun and the tots wouldn’t hurt themselves. 

However, the truth is anything but. 

As far as the sex toy industry in Canada, the proponents of the anti-phthalate stance (did we establish that is NOT a position?) feel they have a valid point and are looking for equality from Health Canada. In an attempt to facilitate some regulatory clout, an owner of a sex toy shop in Toronto submitted a formal request to the health regulator with the aid of her Member of Parliament (who also happens to be a doctor) asking Health Canada to regulate the Canadian sex toy industry. 

But Health Canada didn’t bite. 

“The mere presence of phthalates in soft vinyl is not a health concern,” wrote Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, adding, “Health Canada has no immediate plans to study phthalates in adult toys.” 

But they should, said Kim Sedgwick, who co-owns Red Tent Sisters in Toronto and initiated the request to Health Canada. “There is a very direct link between these concerns over children’s toys and my concerns about sex toys,” said Sedgwick.

Sedgwick notes that just as children are inclined to put their toys in their mouths, sex toys don’t shy away from mouths either (not to mention where else they may wind up). 

And that’s the concern. Not necessarily the contact a sex toy containing phthalates may have with the skin, but rather with saliva and fluids associated with mucus membranes. In 2005, the Danish Technological Institute assessed the potential danger of toxins in sex toys and concluded that DEHP, one of the phthalates on Health Canada’s list, could pose a risk to pregnant and breastfeeding women. The risk applies to women who use the toys for an hour per day, but no risk was found at 20 minutes of use per day. 

For that matter, prenatal phthalate exposure has been shown to cause genital development impairment in male rodents—although the study authors failed to identify how they convinced male rats and mice to play with sex toys. 

Nonetheless, the concern is there. And should the FDA (and Health Canada) not be undertaking such a regulatory stance for sex toys? 

Perhaps they don’t think sex toys rate their concern? Perhaps they misunderstand the sex toy industry as something dark and sinister, rather than a bonefide industry akin to any manufacturer spitting out appliances and consumables like garden hoses? And you can bet that if Bundt cakes and cucumbers were suddenly making people sick, the FDA would be all over it. 

Ward and June Cleaver may be shocked to learn that the sex toy industry in North America is big business, and is bound to continue expanding as the aging boomer population continues to look for new ways to the promised land without having to take drugs to get there. 

And you think the sex toy retail industry is robust? That’s nothing compared to the underground. 

And then there are the trade shows. Liz Lewis, an entrepreneur from Peterborough, Ontario is taking her ‘Sexapalooza’ show to Philadelphia this year after operating successfully in Ottawa and Toronto for the past four. The ‘dragons’ on CBC‘s ‘The Dragon’s Den’ may have trashed her concept, but Lewis is a savvy businesswoman. There’s a market for this and she’s chasing it to ultimate success. 

And if products such as sex toys are available to an ever-increasing sector of Americans in both retail and non-retail settings, the FDA needs to take a hard look at whether or not they are safe. 

At the end of the day, it is not the FDA’s mandate to judge the behavior of the American populace. The FDA can’t tell us what we can, or can’t do. But it is the FDA’s and the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) mandate to ensure that if we buy a product in pursuit of pleasure…it needs to be safe. It may be a sensational statement, but there’s not much difference between eating a handful of pistachios and chewing down on edible underwear. 

Until regulation occurs, adult toy aficionados have little choice but to stick to 100 percent silicone, metal or glass toys (“I’m sorry ma’am, but you said you have a glass shard where???”). 

Or, take their chances with phthalate-laced toys. And if anyone gets good and sick, then look for action of a different kind. The class-action variety. 

In the meantime, happy Valentines Day. And nothing says ‘I Love You’, like remembering to include batteries…

Tags: birth defects, FDA, Health Canada, Phthalates, Sex Toys

This was posted on Friday, February 11th, 2011 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Defective Products, Emerging Issues, Personal Injury . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.