A chemical linked to poor sexual development, obesity and cancer has been found in baby dolls manufactured by three major European brands.
Dolls made by Dutch multinational Philips, Swiss oral health company Curaprox, and French toy brand Sophie La Giraffe have been found to contain bisphenol A (BPA), according to laboratory tests conducted by Czech consumer organization dTest. Philips said it conducted subsequent tests and found no BPA, while Sophie La Giraffe said the amount found was minimal.
All three dolls were marketed as either “BPA-free” or “natural latex.”
BPA is a synthetic chemical used in the production of plastics, but it has a similar structure to the female hormone, estrogen, which it mimics in the bodies of humans and other animals.
Chloe Topping, a campaigner at the Chem Trust, who was not involved in the research, said: “The health effects of BPA are wide-ranging: breast cancer, prostate cancer, endometrial cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, altered immune system, effects on reproduction, brain development and behaviour, including behavior in children.”
Children are particularly vulnerable “because they are still developing, and their organs are very sensitive to dysfunction,” Topping said, with BPA exposure at an early age or in utero linked to lower sperm counts and early onset of puberty. “The thing about endocrine disrupting chemicals… is that they can act at very low concentrations,” she said.
The researchers purchased 19 baby dolls from stores in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary, and two from the online marketplace Temu, made by Foshan City Saadah Baby Products. To mimic the conditions inside an infant’s mouth, they placed each doll in an artificial saliva solution for 30 minutes at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit). The resulting extract was analyzed to determine the bisphenol content.
Of the four dolls in which BPA was detected, the highest concentration was found in the Curaprox baby soother that grows with love. Despite being marketed as “BPA-free,” researchers found BPA concentrations as high as 19 micrograms per kilogram (µg/kg) — violating the 10 microgram limit for BPA transfer from baby dolls set by the European Union.
The second highest concentration is found in the Sophie La Giraffe “Natural Chewy” lollipop. Laboratory tests found a BPA concentration of 3 µg/kg in the product. A concentration of 2 μg/kg was found in a Philips Avent premium air pacifier, also marketed as “BPA-free,” and in one pacifier sourced from Temu, manufactured in Foshan Sidon.
Curaden, which makes the Curaprox range, said the result of the baby growing with love “came as a surprise”. The company conducted its own tests that confirmed the result. “Out of an abundance of caution and in keeping with our commitment to quality, Curaden decided to immediately proactively remove the pacifiers [from affected batches] “From the market and providing refunds to all affected customers,” the company spokesperson said.
Foley, the makers of Sophie la Giraffe, responded to this. “We haven’t had any pacifiers in our catalog for some time,” a spokesperson for the toy manufacturer said. there Photos remain on its website Of children using the doll, but it is no longer listed for sale. “However, all our products are subject to exclusivity [BPA] It is tested before being marketed by an accredited laboratory [SGS]The speaker said.
“As a reminder, the regulatory limit for [BPA] Migration is set at 0.04 mg/kg, and the in vitro detection limit is 0.01 mg/kg. The value cited in the article (3 mcg/kg, or 0.003 mg/kg) is well below this detection limit and is therefore insignificant, a Vulli spokesperson said.
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Philips said it considers product safety to be “our top priority,” which is ensured by “full compliance with all applicable safety requirements… and by following the most stringent standards.”
A spokesperson for the company said: “We want to confirm that our pacifier sets are BPA-free throughout the entire manufacturing process, and we regularly carry out random testing and other quality controls to meet regulatory requirements to verify and confirm this.” “Following the news regarding the Philips Avent SCF085/60 pacifier, we examined our results and conducted further tests with DEKRA, the world’s largest independent expert organization in testing, inspection and certification. These tests also confirm that there is no detectable BPA across our pacifier ranges, including the sample tested, and verified as BPA-free.”
Foshan City did not respond to a request for comment.
Philips and Sophie la Girafe products are available in the UK, but Curaprox and Foshan City Saadah have been removed from the market.
“Pacifiers are often one of the first items parents buy, and they don’t expect to expose their babies to hormone-disrupting chemicals from day one,” said Hanna Hofmanova, editor-in-chief of dTest magazine.
The current EU regulation on BPA in dolls is ambiguous. The EN 1400 standard sets a limit for the transfer of BPA from baby toys at 10 µg/L, but the maximum permissible limit is 10 µg/L. European Toy Safety Directivewhich also covers pacifiers, sets a limit of 40 mcg/L.
EU law has banned the use of BPA in baby bottles entirely since 2011 and these rules were expanded in 2018 to include the production of food containers and bottles for children under three. Karolina Prabkova from Czech campaign group Arnica said: “It makes no sense to ban BPA in baby bottles but not in pacifiers, which children use more intensively and in some cases for many years.
“We are seeing a lack of strict regulation that is failing consumers.”