Plasticizers in PVC toys and childcare products: What succeeds the phthalates? Market survey 2007

In 1999, the EU banned the use of certain phthalates as plasticizers for toys and childcare products. To check the plasticizers actually used, in the first half of 2007 toys and childcare articles consisting of plasticized PVC were collected at retail by the official control authorities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Extracts were analyzed directly by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection or mass spectrometry, but also after transesterification in order to detect larger molecular mass components and confirm the structures identified by direct analysis through the corresponding transesterification products. In 252 samples from 172 products, 17 different compounds were identified and determined quantitatively. Nearly half of the samples contained diisononyl-cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylate (DINCH) as the principal plasticizer. In second place were the phthalates (in 58 samples at concentrations above 4% w/w plastic, 23% of all samples), whereby they were frequently found in cloths (pinafores) and shoes, but seldom in baby articles. Of the other plasticizers used, all but two are approved for food applications or in the petitioning process: diisobutyl phthalate, found in 6 samples at 4-35%, and tri-(2-ethylhexyl) trimellitate, observed in 3 samples. Both are not considered suitable replacements for the banned phthalates.