A New York judge has ruled that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission can’t let toys containing toxic chemicals known at phthalates remain on store shelves after a ban takes effect on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe says the CPSC must eliminate a loophole that lets the substances remain in toys made before the ban is in place.
Manufacturers have said they’d have to pull hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of products from store shelves to comply.
CPSC spokesman Joe Martyak says the commission decided not to appeal the ruling, which relates to phthalates, chemicals used to soften plastics commonly found in bath toys, books, teethers, bibs, dolls and plastic figures.
Phthalates can be absorbed through the mouth or skin, interfering with reproductive hormones.
Consumer advocacy groups Public Citizen and the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) sued he CPSC in December, contending the agency created a loophole by saying the ban didn’t apply to toys or child-care products manufactured before Feb. 10.
Attorney Aaron Colangelo, who argued the case for the NRDC, described the ruling as “a big win for children’s health and for consumer safety.
Colangelo said phthalates already have been banned in some places around the world, so phthalate-free products are already available to toy companies. “It won’t be hard for them” to comply,” he said.
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