PVC is used in the construction of everything from pipes to pool toys, and is easy to spot (check any plastic product for a recycling symbol with the number the three in it). Companies like Microsoft and Mattel have abolished the use of PVC in their packaging for years now, but it’s still one of the most widely used plastics in North America.

The presence of PVC in toys has been of high concern for parents over the past several years. Parents very rarely check to see if toys they purchase for their children contain PVC, and therefore many children are unknowingly exposed to phthalates, which are used to soften PVC to make it more durable, when chewing on a toy. Though the exact effect is unknown, young people would be more prone to any sort of health issue caused by phthalates.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently begun cracking down on companies that irresponsibly handle PVC. In early December, the EPA and the Justice Department came to a $12 million settlement with Shintech Inc., the largest manufacturer of PVC in the U.S., and it’s subsidiary K-Bin Inc., demanding they clean up their facilities in Freeport, Texas after determining they violated the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Clean Water Act.

“It is imperative that business and industry do their part to minimize the possible harm their operations may cause to our environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene in the DOJ report. “This agreement will ensure corrective action is taken and provide added benefits to the environment through supplemental projects.”

The companies were fined $2.6 million and ordered to spend $4.8 million to decrease chlorofluorocarbon emissions and better hazardous waste management at their Texas plants. The remaining $4.7 million will be spent on supplemental environmental projects as well as renovations to ensure PVC emissions are reduced by 10,000 pounds, the DOJ reports.

The supplemental projects include funding the addition of at least 300 acres of wetlands and forest to the Austin Woods preserve, as well as aiding a new Houston recycling program that will help to ensure the proper disposal of appliances containing ozone-depleting refrigerant.

The EPA is committed to help reduce PVC emissions, while many companies are committed to lowering the usage of PVC in their products.

“It’s not something you want in a product,” said Greenpeace member Jack Desena. “In small doses the phthalates aren’t a big deal, we all come in contact with them on a regular basis. But the manufacturing, processing and disposal of polyvinyl chlorides is the real problem. When you process them they release so many toxins into the air.  It really rips apart the environment.”

It wasn’t too long ago I was a tween who dealt with self esteem issues, insecurities, started noticing boys and most importantly finding a style that proclaimed the inner qualities I was needing to share with the world. Of course for me it was done with caution at first, when you’re a tween it’s about testing the waters … not jumping in. Ha! That’s for the teen years!

But, I remembered the feeling of wanting to empower myself. There were so many things that I saw other tweens do or say or wear that made me wonder if I was not a normal tween.  They would dress in ways that would seem like they were competing for attention, the not so good kind, and surged jealousy in us girls whose parents weren’t so liberal in giving us everything we wanted.

The tween years are filled with competition, jealousy and insecurities. So how can we help our tweens feel a little empowered while promoting good values, sub-consciously of course. I spoke with FAO Schwartz Tween expert on hot products that are specifically designed to inspire tweens that parents will willingly want to invest on.

Depending on your little tween’s personality or inner wild child, Rebelle has created handbags that any girl would brag about. Rebelle is the only handbag collection available exclusively to the tween market. The detachable handbags come with a zipper down the middle so you can share them with a friend, thus teaching girls to share and the value of friendship. You can also join the Rebelle Friendship Club and become pen pals with girls from across the world. How distinguished, even for a tween, to say they have a friend in a foreign land.

If you have a very creative and eclectic tween, that you don’t mind spending a little money on to help develop their creative side, Imagine This has just the gift. Imagine This has created custom handbags for that fashionista who is a little finicky. With this special design opportunity, your tween will first receive her Designer’s Portfolio, which has everything she will need to design a bag she can call her own. The kit includes templates and fabric swatches that she can hand pick. Once her design has been completed, you can submit it to the talented designers at Imagine This, who will turn the original design into an actual handbag.

Handbags not your tweens forte? Jump-start their passion to become a fashion designer with this Project Runway Fashion and Figure Drawing Set. The Kit comes with a 12-inch wooden mannequin model, pencils, sketchbook, and more. Sketch your inspired design ideas to create a complete fashion portfolio.

Last but certainly not least, a gift any tween would feel creative with is Silk Scarf Painting by ALEX. Create a brilliant rainbow of freely flowing vibrant colors on pure, shimmery 100% silk. Kit comes with one 45″ long scarf and one 28″ bandana. Decorating supplies include 3 real bamboo brushes, mixing palette, eye dropper, rubber gloves, chunky salt, and easy step-by-step instructions.

Tweens can be a challenge to raise but it can be even worse around the holidays, figuring out what to buy them. Don’t leave the shopping up to your imagination or try to determine what your tween is thinking. The experts know best, and your tween will be pleased with your ability to find their inner spirit they thought you never understood. You can find all of these great gift ideas at FAO Schwartz stores.

Today fully one-sixth of the world’s human population lacks access to clean drinking water, and more than two million people-mostly kids-die each year from water-borne diseases. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an independent organization that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States, predicts that by 2025, one-third of all humans will face severe and chronic water shortages. 

Needless to say, water is of primary importance to our survival, and protecting access to and the quality of fresh water supplies will likely become more and more of a challenge in the coming years. According to the non-profit World Water Council, the 20th century saw a tripling of the world’s population while freshwater use grew by a factor of six. With world population expected to increase as much as 50 percent over the next half century, analysts are indeed worried that increasing demand for water, coupled with industrialization and urbanization, will have serious consequences both for human health and the environment. Access to freshwater is also likely to cause conflicts between governments as well as within national borders around the world. 

According to USAID, the world’s “water crisis” is not so much an issue of scarcity as it is of poor management and inequitable distribution. The hardest hit regions have been countries in the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide demand for water is presently doubling every 21 years. 

Water-related problems are not the sole purview of the developing world though. We here in North America have polluted and diverted our fresh water supplies far beyond nature’s capacity to restore the flows, notably in the West where sprawling, thirsty metropolises have grown up in deserts where the only way water can be provided is to siphon it from other regions. 

So how do we fix the world’s water woes? The key lies in using water more efficiently-especially in agriculture and industry, which together account for over 90 percent of the world’s total freshwater use. But changing the practices of millions of farmers and businesses around the world is a Herculean task. 

Irena Salina, director of the award-winning documentary film, FLOW, about the world’s dwindling water supplies, thinks it can be done if world leaders, international banks, the United Nations and other governmental organizations establish cooperative agreements for the use of bodies of water, including groundwater, and economic mechanisms to make sure those who need access to water can get it. 

As for the developed world-where we use 10 times the water as do developing countries-Salina remains pessimistic. “If our own leaders were serious about solving problems, we would not allow corporations to discharge pollutants into our water sources,” she says. “Instead of spending billions on technologies that clean up pollution, we would be using resources to prevent water pollution in the first place.” 

CONTACTS: World Water Council, www.worldwatercouncil.org; USAID, www.usaid.gov; Flow the Film, www.flowthefilm.com. 

Dear EarthTalk: There has been a lot of news about lead-tainted children’s toys being recalled. Where are these toys ending up and are they creating pollution problems there? – Michael O’Laughlin, Tigard, OR 

The biggest problem with the recall of millions of lead-tainted toys over the last few years has been getting shops and consumers to comply. According to Mattel-which has issued dozens of recalls in recent years, including some 2.2 million Chinese-made toys contaminated with lead paint-historically only about six percent of recalled toys are returned. For those that do come home to roost, Mattel sells or reuses the zinc and some of the resins they contain, and then recycles as many of the other components as possible, off-loading the lead to companies that specialize in the safe disposal of hazardous materials. 

But what becomes of the 94 percent or so of the recalled lead-tainted toys that don’t make it back to Mattel? Many of them no doubt have found a comfortable home with a child somewhere long before word of the recall-ignored or missed by parents-got out. Of the remaining toys, some of those that were recalled in the summer of 2007 ended up on auction website like eBay and business-to-business sites like Made-in-China.com-and then eventually into the hands of unwitting consumers, many of them overseas.  

Unfortunately, there is still no federal law or regulation against reselling recalled toys, although some members of Congress are trying to change that. For its part, eBay has agreed to try to keep recalled products off its auction website, but enforcement can be a challenge. 

The fact that these toys got out there for sale in the first place is the real shame, as research has shown that kids who have been exposed regularly to lead or lead paint have lower IQs and may experience learning disabilities as well as behavioral problems. 

The good news might be that recalls are getting more exposure than ever, with better results. Illinois-based RC2 Corporation has already gotten back upwards of 70 percent of the 1.5 million lead-tainted Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys it recalled just last year. While there is still no nationally accepted procedure governing the disposal or recycling of such items, individual companies are bound by the laws of their respective states regarding disposal of the harmful materials. Those who worry about lead leaching out of landfills and into groundwater and soils would like the see the federal government mandate strict safety rules for dealing with lead and other hazardous materials. 

Consumers unsure about whether a particular toy or other item has been part of a recall should check online at the “Recalls and Product Safety” section of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website. If a given product has been recalled, you can probably return it to the store where you bought it and let them deal with the hassle of getting it to the manufacturer. Or if you know an item was recalled for hazardous materials, you can drop it off at your local municipal hazardous waste collection facility. The website Earth911 provides a comprehensive national database of such facilities coast-to-coast. 

CONTACTS: Mattel Product Recalls, service.mattel.com/us/recall.asp; RC2 Recall Information, recalls.rc2.com; U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, www.cpsc.gov; Earth911, www.earth911.org. 

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

The recent recalls of Chinese-manufactured toys have given a whole new life to the concept “buy American.”

“Buying toys and other goods made in America has always been a patriotic thing to do, something that supported the domestic economy,” said Glenda Lehman-Ervin, mother of two and a principal of Lehman’s, an old-time general store located in Kidron, Ohio. “Now, it feels like a question of safety, as well.”

But the good news is, there are American-made alternatives, toys that offer imagination-building activity and old-fashioned fun – without the contamination risks that have come to be associated with some foreign-made toys. “A lot of these toys are low-tech, interactive toys that really engage a child’s imagination,” Lehman-Ervin said. “And they are manufactured domestically, many by hand, making them not just toys but a piece of American heritage as well.”

Looking to fill your child’s Christmas dreams with American-made products this year? Here are some options:

• Classic rag dolls – “What toy is more American than a hand-made rag doll?” Lehman-Ervin says. Illustrator and author Johnny Gruelle created the most famous rag doll, Raggedy Ann, for his daughter in 1915, and Raggedy Ann’s brother, Andy, came along in 1918. Mothers have handstitched the dolls for decades, and mass marketing of the characters hasn’t changed the fact that the most popular versions are still handmade. Lehman’s offers Ann and Andy rag dolls that are still handmade by a real mother, who stitches them the old-fashioned way.
• Wood is welcome – From yo-yos to train whistles, some of the best-loved American-made toys are made from wood. It’s possible to find wooden toys at virtually every price point that are appropriate for different age groups. Pick-up sticks, a simple, classic puzzle game can be had in an American-made version for just $9.95. Wooden whistles cost even less, while Amish-made toy trains and wood and metal wagons range higher.
• Moving American-style – The bicycle may have been invented abroad, but American kids cemented the bike’s position as a classic toy in the 1950s and ‘60s. Bikes today are a multi-million-dollar industry, with some top line names being designed and built overseas. But it is still possible to find bikes and tricycles made domestically. Check out www.lehmans.com for “The Best Tricycle Ever.”
• Metal means fun – From Slinkies to devilishly simple-seeming puzzle games, metal toys have a long tradition as favorites in Christmas stockings. While modern Slinkies are made from plastic, a limited collectors’ edition metal Slinky is still made. And, ironically, many so-called Chinese puzzles – in which a child has to unlock intricately interwoven metal pieces – are actually made in the Unites States.

Courtesy of ARAcontent