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With Toxic Toys Still on Shelves, Parents Dial Into GoodGuide
GoodGuide rates toys on health, environmental and social performance; parents get instant recommendations for safe toys on their phone while shopping
SAN FRANCISCO - GoodGuide, a San Francisco-based start-up with a social mission, released comprehensive health, social, and environmental toy product ratings today at http://www.goodguide.com and on mobile devices, helping parents identify and avoid toxic toys while they shop. In partnership with the Ecology Center, GoodGuide combines HealthyToys.org's chemical testing results with additional health data, such as PVC and phthalate-free products, plus country of origin, and social and environmental performance scores for popular toy companies. Shoppers can access all of this information by downloading GoodGuide's free iPhone application or through text messaging as they shop this holiday season.
Shoppers can search for specific toys or browse GoodGuide's Top Rated Contaminant-Free Toy List. GoodGuide researchers reported surprising difficulty in creating a Contaminant-Free Toy list for consumers due to a high prevalence of toxic chemicals in toys tested. Nearly 85% of all rated toys contained some chemical of concern – Lead, Arsenic, Cadmium, Mercury, Bromine, Phthalates, or other substances. Roughly 60% of toy companies studied by GoodGuide had product recalls within the past two years.
"The number of toxic toys that will be sold to parents this year is astonishing. Now Santa needs a team of elves with PhD's and chemical testing equipment to find contaminant-free toys for your kids," remarked Dara O'Rourke, GoodGuide's founder and a professor at UC Berkeley. "In just few clicks, GoodGuide can tell you if a toy is safe."
New consumer product safety regulations – which would have removed some of these products from store shelves – were "interpreted" by Bush Administration lawyers recently to not apply to toys manufactured before February 2009, leaving many toxic toys on shelves this holiday shopping season.
"We are pleased to partner with GoodGuide to help alert more people to the chemicals of concern in toys," says the Ecology Center's Jeff Gearhart, who led the HealthyToys research. "Coupled with GoodGuide's environmental and social ratings, as well as their mobile applications, we hope that these resources will fully equip consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions."
GoodGuide's Toy ratings help parents:
- Quickly browse top-rated toys online or from a phone while shopping.
- Find safe & healthy toys: Lead-Free, Phthalate-Free and PVC-Free.
- See where each toy is manufactured.
- See which toys have recently been recalled.
- Check to see how popular toy companies perform on health, environmental-impact and social responsibility issues.
For additional information, visit http://www.goodguide.com, or to request screenshots of GoodGuide toy data, such as top and worst rated products, please contact Jodie Van Horn at Jodie@goodguide.com or 415-215-2210.
About GoodGuide
GoodGuide strives to provide the world's largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of products and companies. GoodGuide's mission is to help consumers find safe, healthy, and green products. GoodGuide currently offers detailed product information for more than 65,000 personal care, household chemical and toy products. GoodGuide is committed to providing consumers the information they need to make better decisions, and to ultimately shift the balance of information and power in the marketplace.
