Halloween is just around the proverbial corner and most of us can’t wait to get into the “spirits” of the celebration to eat, drink, and be scary. But before heading out the door to buy the scariest costume and other Halloween paraphernalia, heed this spooky warning: Some Halloween products are loaded with chemical poisons cadmium, lead, and mercury. Of the 60 Halloween products tested by a toxic watchdog, 42 (or 70 percent) were found to be contaminated with excessive amounts of health-damaging chemicals. So, be very afraid not just of things that go bump in the night.
Because fright night is near, members of the EcoWaste Coalition bravely went out into the streets to look for these Halloween products that are popular with kids and adults alike, and find out if they contain harmful heavy metals.
And what eerie truth did they unearth? “Our test reveals that some Halloween products are unsafe for children due to their highly toxic ingredients and should be pulled out of the market at once,” says Thony Dizon, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition’s Project Protect.
In collaboration with QES (Manila), Inc., local dealer of X- Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzer, EcoWaste Coalition screened the products for toxic chemicals such as antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury.
EcoWaste Coalition shares these scary facts, as can be gleaned from the website of the World Health Organization:
• Cadmium, a human carcinogen, has toxic effects on the kidneys, the skeletal and the respiratory systems.
• Lead, a cumulative toxicant, affects multiple body systems, like the neurologic, hematologic, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and renal systems.
• Mercury poses a particular threat to the development of the child in utero and early in life, and has toxic effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, and on the lungs, kidneys, skin, and eyes.
The group bought these Halloween products from popular retail outlets in the city on October 8 to 11 and analyzed them with XRF on October 12. The samples, priced at P5 to P499.50 were purchased at Landmark (TriNoma); National Book Store (Shangri-La Plaza Mall, SM City North EDSA, Q-Plaza); Shopwise (Makati); Toy Express (SM City North EDSA); and Toys R Us (Robinsons Ermita), and from bargain shops at 999 Shopping Mall and the New Divisoria Center in Manila.
Helping our poison busters with their job is the XRF, a portable device that shoots beam into the material and then measures certain chemical elements in less than a minute. It is widely used by regulatory agencies and private companies in the US. Among the Halloween products tested were accessories, costumes, hats, masks, face paints, decorations, screamers, trick or treat buckets and toys.
And here’s what they found:
• Out of 60 samples, 42 (70%) had at least one toxic metal such as antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury above levels of concern. None of the 42 products found with chemicals of concerns indicated that they contain such toxic substances.
• Of the 60 samples, 36 (60%) were found to contain cadmium above 75 parts per million (ppm), the limit proposed under H.R. 4428 or the Children’s Toxic Metals Act bill of the USA. An unlabelled red plastic devil mask from Landmark had 199 ppm of cadmium. Ten samples (17%) exceeded the 90 ppm regulatory limit for lead under the US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. A pull string skull toy bought from shop number IQ 2-4 at 999 Shopping Mall has the highest levels of lead at 3,463 ppm, as well as chromium at 3,771 ppm. Two samples (3%) had mercury above the 1 ppm limit for cosmetics set by the Food and Drugs Administration of the Philippines, including a crayon body paint product with 239 ppm of mercury from Anding’s Toys and Flowers, Inc. at the New Divisoria Center.
• The tests also showed that 13 samples (22%) contained more than one toxic metal, raising the health risk due to multiple exposure. For example, a key chain with a witchlike pumpkin design had antimony (476 ppm), cadmium (187 ppm), chromium (2,306 ppm), and lead (2,683 ppm).
• Of the 60 samples, nine were face and body paint products, six of which provided chemical information on their labels and seven claimed to be “safe” or “non-toxic”. However, all seven “safe” or “non-toxic” products turned out to be tainted with cadmium. In fact, all nine face and body paint products were found toxic, including expensive branded products bought from National Book Store that registered with high levels of cadmium from 104 ppm to 180 ppm
• Only six of the 60 samples had the mandatory license to operate (LTO) number on their labels, and 55 had either no labels or incomplete labels, depriving buyers of basic information such as the product brand and name, its manufacturer or distributors, contact details, age suitability and precautionary instructions.
Amid all these spooky findings, EcoWaste Coalition strongly urged the industry not to manufacture, import, distribute or sell toys and other children’s products that contain chemicals of concern such as those found in the Philippine Priority Chemicals List.
The group likewise called on wholesalers and retailers to refuse to sell children’s products unless they meet the following criteria: tested for safety, registered with the authorities, and labeled with vital information, including chemical ingredients and their health and environmental effects.
Yes, have a ghoul time on Halloween, but watch out for these spooky products.
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