The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (H.R. 4040) was signed into law recently, leaving SGMA president Tom Cove worried that businesses will follow Wal-Mart’s lead and immediately trash all of their inventory containing phthalates. Cove urged vendors and retailers to read the fine print of the legislation before discarding inventory. If they do, they will learn that the law focuses on very specific products that exceed very specific phthalate content thresholds.

 

The act, which limits the use of phthalates in the manufacturing of children’s toys, contains three sections that directly pertain to the sporting goods industry; the lead paint rule for children’s products, the placement of tracking labels on children’s products and the prohibition on the sale of certain products containing specified phthalates. The immediate concern for the industry is the restrictions on phthalates.
“This is extremely serious, far-reaching, very broad legislation and it would behoove everyone in the industry to pay close attention to it,” said Cove, insisting that many don’t yet realize  the legislation affects them.


The bill defines “children’s toys” as “consumer product[s] designed or intended by the manufacturer for a child 12 years of age or younger for use by the child when the child plays.” As of mid-February 2009, it will be illegal to manufacture, sell, distribute, or import into the U.S. any “children’s toy or child care article that contains concentrations of more than 0.1% of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), or benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP).”


Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R Us responded to news of the bill by announcing that they are going completely phthalate-free, eliminating the chemical from all of their children’s products, instead of just those specified in the bill. While this action aims to eliminate the companies’ risk of lawsuits and controversy, it will require discarding significant inventory and could prompt confusion among consumers. Many suspect the sheer buying power of Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R Us ultimately will force many manufacturers to abandon phthalates regardless of the law.


Wal-Mart’s and Toys ‘R Us’ decision follows a pattern set in April, when REI announced it would pull all bottles containing BPA from its stores and website despite inconclusive science about its health threats.
Manufacturers have no time to lose if they intend to avoid writing down significant amounts of inventory, Cove said.


“The first challenge is alerting people that it applies to them and the second is [the manufacturers] going through with it,” explained Cove.
While this change will cause headaches for some, it has created opportunities for others. Eastman Chemical Company, a producer of non-phthalate plasticizers which partnered with CamelBak in 2007 to develop a PBA-free substitute for the ubiquitous polycarbonate bottle,  sponsored the SGMA conference call on the phthalate legislation last week.


“We are sponsoring events like the SGMA conference call to inform brand owners, and also brand owner suppliers, that workable alternatives to ortho-phthalates are already available,” said Dr. Mark Holt, global new market development manager for Eastman.