Toxic toys are a case for urgent action on chemical regulation  – Inside track

This post is by Ivie Itoje, Green Baby programme manager at environmental charity Wen (Women’s Environmental Network). 

As the EU prepares to introduce major new protections banning a range of harmful chemicals from children’s toys, the UK is on a very different path.

With no equivalent action from the UK government, we risk becoming a regulatory dumping ground, where toys no longer legal to sell in Europe are pushed to British consumers, often via poorly regulated online platforms.

As part of our Green Baby Campaign, Wen is calling for government action to close this growing post-Brexit gap in chemical regulation to ensure we are not left behind in action on harmful environmental exposures.

The UK is falling behind
The EU’s new Toy Safety Regulation is a crucial move toward healthier, safer childhoods, especially with its long overdue action on endocrine disruptors, a ban on PFAS and Bisphenols, as well as accountability for online marketplaces.

These substances are associated with serious and wide-ranging health impacts, from developmental and hormonal disruption to links with fertility issues and health conditions such as cancer.

Here in the UK, we’re seeing a worrying divergence. A generation of post-Brexit babies are at risk of growing up with weaker protections simply because of where they were born.

Many toys breach safety limits
In the UK, 500+ toy product alerts have been issued since 2021 – more than half (271 of them) rated as “serious” – with repeated safety breaches involving toxic plasticisers.

Wen’s new briefing, ‘Playing Safe’, launched yesterday on Green Baby Day (11 June) outlines how 80 per cent of cheaply made toys sold through major third-party traders on online marketplaces often fail to meet EU safety standards and could be a danger to children.

In 2023, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute conducted high street toys’ testing and found 100 times the legal limit of phthalatesand a fashion doll 300 times over the legal limit.

In the years 2023-24, the European Union’s Safety Gate, the rapid alert systems for dangerous non-food products in the EU, reported that 15 per cent of notifications were for toys, with toys being the most commonly notified products in ten EU countries.

Children are particularly vulnerable to chemical exposure due to their physiology and how they play, with hand to mouth contact and still developing bodies, making early life exposure a critical public health issue.

Injustice is baked into the system
And, let’s be clear: the impacts of toxic exposure are not felt equally. Communities already facing structural inequalities – whether due to race, class or geography – are often the ones most at risk. This is no accident. Marginalised families are more likely to live near polluting industries, have fewer safe product options due to cost and face limited access to information about harmful chemicals.

Cheaper toys, often sold in under-regulated markets, are more likely to contain toxic substances. Add to this the cumulative burden of environmental and social stressors, and it becomes clear: toy safety is not just a regulatory issue, it is a justice issue.

The EU is moving forward
The UK’s inaction means that children here – particularly those already facing disadvantage – are being exposed to products that will now be illegal to sell in Europe. This is the stark reality of the post-Brexit regulatory divergence.

Chemical experts and obstetricians agree this is an issue. Wen is now calling for the UK government to urgently ban EDCs, PFAS, and Bisphenols in toys in line with new EU rules; enforce stronger regulation of third-party sellers and imports, especially those online; introduce clear, transparent chemical safety labelling, such as the EU’s proposed Digital Product Passport; and place environmental justice and equity at the heart of UK chemical policy.

Otherwise the UK risks becoming a warehouse for unsafe toys banned elsewhere. We need political will to close this post-Brexit health gap.

Learn more about the Green Baby Campaign at www.wen.org.uk/greenbaby