DAVAO del Norte Rep. Anthony G. Del Rosario, (1st District of Davao del Norte), has filed a legislative measure, which, if enacted by the 16th Congress, would ensure children’s access to non-hazardous toys and other children products.
House Bill 62, or the proposed “Safe and Non-Toxic Children’s Products Act,” seeks to regulate the importation, manufacture, sale and distribution of kids’ toys, school supplies and other childcare articles containing harmful chemicals such as heavy metals, phthalates and bisphenol A.
In 2012, a similar bill co-authored by Del Rosario and other lawmakers was unanimously passed by the House of Representatives, but failed to become a national law due to the absence of a counterpart measure at the Senate.
“We expect lawmakers to throw their full support behind this urgent measure, which, in time, will eradicate the thriving trade in toys laden with harmful substances throughout the country,” said del Rosario.
“Our failure to upgrade chemical safety regulations and standards for toys is causing bad products that are ineligible to enter the American and European markets due to their toxic contents to get dumped on us,” he said.
As an example, he cited the fresh exposé by the EcoWaste Coalition indicating that children’s play chairs banned in US and Bulgaria for containing high levels of di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate and lead are being sold in Divisoria, Manila.
Del Rosario also cited the results of the toys sampling conducted by the EcoWaste Coalition showing that 121 of the 435 (27%) toy products that it analyzed in 2011 and 313 of the 518 (60%) toy products it examined in 2012 using a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer had toxic metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury above levels of concern.
Once enacted, the Act will require the Food and Drugs Administration to prepare a list of chemicals used in children’s products which cause or may cause harm, injury or death to children, specifically identifying substances that are absolutely banned in the manufacture of children’s products and setting limits for certain chemicals.
Recognizing the consumer right to information, the Act will make it mandatory for the toy industry to disclose toxicological information on product labels and prohibit mislabeling of the level of chemicals in children’s products.
The Act will prohibit the importation, distribution, manufacture and sale of products containing more than the allowable level of hazardous chemicals such as, but not limited to, antimony, arsenic, bisphenol A, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and phthalate.
It will further prohibit the importation of children’s products banned or withdrawn in the country of manufacture.
Under the bill, a Children’s Product Safety Council will be created to facilitate multi-agency and multi-stakeholders coordination and action to promote safe and non-toxic children’s products, including research, information and education campaigns.
To encourage public vigilance, the Act entitles any citizen to file an appropriate civil, criminal or administrative action in proper bodies or courts against violators, sparing such action from the payment of filing fees and, upon prima facie showing of the non-enforcement or violation complained of, exempts the plaintiff from the filing of injunction bond for the issuance of preliminary injunction.
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