Gimme the Good Stuff

Happy holidays! We hope this toy guide is helpful for those of you looking to have a toxin-free and environmentally-responsible holiday!

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Toys, like evvvvverything else, can introduce toxins into your home, to say nothing of the environmental impact of producing and disposing of ALL THAT plastic.

This non-toxic toy guide helps you minimize the risks to both your kids and the planet by investing in higher-quality, non-toxic toys.

3 Tips for Choosing Safer, Non-Toxic Toys

If you want a truly toxin-free toy box, you will need to:

1. Avoid painted wooden toys, unless they’re made in the United States or Europe or by brands you’ve vetted. Lead paint continues to show up in Chinese-made toys. Lead has been banned from toys produced in the United States, so you can be reasonably sure that toys that are made in America will be lead-free.
2. Avoid Chinese toys. Unfortunately, lead paint isn’t the only thing to fear in Chinese toys. Many Chinese-imported toys have also been found to be contaminated with brominated fire retardants (including notorious PBDEs). Although these chemicals are banned for most uses in Europe and Canada, and no longer produced in the U.S., a legal loophole allows finished toys that contain these toxins to be imported and sold here. Since more than 85% of toys are made in China, they are not easy to avoid! Being made in China doesn’t necessarily make a product Bad Stuff; in some cases, a company will be based in Europe but may have a devoted manufacturing facilities located in China (or elsewhere in Asia). In general, when companies go to the trouble to use organic cotton, real wood, water-based paints, etc., they are also the companies that maintain close control over their production facilities–wherever they are located.
3. Avoid toys made of vinyl (PVC). Phthalates are typically added to PVC toys as a softening agent. You can find phthalate-free PVC, which is safer than conventional PVC, but I would still avoid it where you can. One study by HealthyStuff.org found that 78% of toys tested contained PVC in one or more components, so again, avoiding this entirely is easier said than done.

Here’s a quick non-toxic toys cheat sheet:

The Worst Stuff in Toys

Some types of toys are consistently found to more toxic than others in study after study. Be especially cautious when purchasing:

• Sidewalk chalk, which has been found to be contaminated with asbestos. Here is safe chalk.
• Play jewelry, which may contain lead. Here’s safer toy jewelry.
• Rubber duckies, which usually made of PVC and contain phthalates. Here’s a safe duck.
• Plastic play food, which can contain high levels of chlorine). Here’s some safe play food.

Earth-Friendly, Non-Toxic Toys

For the purposes of this guide, I am not going to designate any toys that are entirely made of plastic as “Good Stuff.”

That said, there are some plastics that are likely completely inert and therefore don’t present a health risk. See “The Okay Stuff” below for a bunch of safe plastic toys.

From an environmental perspective, I would love to see us all support those companies who make high-quality wooden toys that can be passed down rather than thrown away.

The Good Stuff: Truly Non-Toxic Toys

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The Okay Stuff

The Bad Stuff

The Sneaky Stuff

Don’t see your favorite toys in any of the Good, Okay, Bad, or Sneaky categories? Comment below and let us know!

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