Retail giants Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us have both revised their safety guidelines for suppliers, slashing the maximum allowed amount of lead in surface coatings.
Toys "R" Us announced last week that from next month will require all products manufactured exclusively for its stores to far exceed legal requirements and contain no more than 90 ppm of lead in surface coatings. Substrates in the products must contain no more than 250 ppm. Under federal US guidelines, the ceiling for lead content is 600 ppm.
The company has also pledged to eliminate the use of phthalates in products that it sells by the end of this year. Phthalates are plasticising compounds believed to have negative health effects. Finally, it expects nickel cadmium batteries to be totally eliminated from its product portfolio by year's end.
The move cranks up pressure on the company’s rivals, including Wal-Mart which this week announced that it is to mirror its rival's pledge on surface coatings, but is sticking to the 600 ppm threshold on accessible components in toys.
It has also pledged to reduce levels of "certain phthalates" in toys to a 0.1 per cent maximum. The mandate applies to all orders and reorders of toys, said the company, which will also enforce independent testing of all new toys and reorders against its guidelines, starting next month.
Lorraine Smith, senior corporate social responsibility adviser for Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, argued that such safety standards are part of a wider focus on ethical sourcing. "There's a much bigger issue around overall lifecycle, that takes in the raw materials to the manufacturing, and assembly, through distribution, all the way through to disassembly and disposal," she said. "The lead content in toys is a small piece of that way bigger picture and a lot of companies [are now] looking at their overall product line."
US retailers have faced heavy criticism in recent months over the chemical content of toys following a spate of recalls. The recalls prompted the state of California to last year launch legal action against 20 companies, including Mattel, Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us, accusing them of selling toys containing illegal quantities of lead.
Despite opposition from some manufacturers, the US looks set to introduce tough new rules forcing toy manufacturers to remove dangerous chemicals from their products 01 Aug 2008
Charity wants Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft to clean up their act 20 May 2008
"The marketing is greener than the product," claim campaigners 03 Mar 2008
Retail giant pledges to slash plastic bag waste by a third 26 Sep 2008
As a "mutated fish" is reportedly found at a site downstream of one of Canada's controversial oil sands development, leading green groups walk away from project approval initiative 20 Aug 2008
EUAs close to €15 a tonne as fears over slump in industrial output bite 05 Dec 2008
New website designed to help local authorities identify which recyclable materials it can still find a buyer for 05 Dec 2008
Online security expert claims you can "green" your surfing and cut your PC energy use by avoiding Flash-enabled moving websites 05 Dec 2008
More news
When change-resistant companies begin hearing green ideas, they start seeing red flags. So how do you go about selling sustainability to a conservative business? Anna Clark investigates 04 Dec 2008
Following Lord Turner's report, all business leaders must finally accept that the rapid decarbonisation of the UK economy is now inevitable 02 Dec 2008
BusinessGreen.com offers some top tips on how to make sure the annual office festivities prove memorable for all the right reasons 01 Dec 2008 More in-depth
Post your comment
Send an email to the Business Green editor at feedback@businessgreen.com
