ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Activists Raise Alarm Over PVC Toys

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Apr 11 1999 (IPS) - Toys are much the talk of the town these days in Japan, but the discussions are eliciting not smiles but angry words.

This is because a fiery debate between activists and toy manufacturers has erupted over the safety of toys made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The activists are being led by the international environmental organisation Greenpeace, which says toys with PVC pose a serious health risk to children.

Analysis done by Greenpeace on PVC, a type of plastic used to make teething rings, rattlers and other toys soft, revealed that 50 percent of the material consists of toxic additives that have been linked to cancer as well as liver and kidney damage in laboratory animals.

Last month, three Greenpeace volunteers were arrested by police for displaying a banner protesting the use of PVC in playthings at a large toy traders’ exhibition.

The volunteers, all foreigners, have since been released and sent home after they each paid a fine of 100,000 yen (833 U.S. dollars) for “trespassing”.

But if the authorities meant to discourage similar protests with the arrests, their plan may have backfired.

Says Mihoko Fukazawa, who belongs to a mothers’ group working for safer toys: “The arrests were arbitrary and really an insult to us. But at the same time, the Greenpeace protests spurred more public interest in the issue.”

Activists point out that PVC is particularly dangerous to babies and toddlers who are more likely to put toys in their mouths, allowing the substance to enter their bodies. Greenpeace has identified the use of PVC by several of Japan’s biggest toy manufacturers, along with US companies such as Disney and Warner Brothers.

Popular toy makers Tomy and Bandai have been named by Greenpeace as among the local firms using PVC in their products.

Attempts by citizens’ groups to persuade Japanese firms to change their policies by providing information regarding the safety of their products have not met with much success.

A spokesman for the Japan Toy Association who refuses to be identified argues that PVC is safe according to government regulations.

“Really, I don’t know what the fuss is about,” he adds. “All Japanese toy manufacturers follow government orders and safety regulations, which do not prohibit the use of PVC on the grounds of being dangerous to children.”

Such statements infuriate activists even more. Says Tomoko Kozuka of the Women’s Democratic Club, the oldest women’s rights group in the country: “Companies can wriggle out of anything through this kind of argument. As a result, we are demanding that the government pass legislation that will force toy manufacturers to put warning signs on their labels.”

Activists say this is the least toy firms can do to protect consumers. Kozuka says if “companies have labels that inform consumers that PVC is suspected of causing cancer in humans”, then a buyer can decide for himself or herself whether or not he is willing to take the risk by purchasing the product with PVC.

Observers, though, say it will be difficult to force Japanese toy companies to undertake changes that may cut into their profits. Japan’s lucrative toy market averages sales of 500.8 billion yen (4 billion dollars) a year.

Activists themselves concede that having toy safety laws passed in Japan may not be enough since many manufacturers operate in other countries or subcontract actual toy production elsewhere.

“Most of the toys we make are in foreign countries because they offer cheaper labour,”‘ admits Jiro Onuma, a quality control expert at Tomy. “It is difficult to ask our suppliers abroad to change because the chemical is widely used.”

More than 70 percent of the production of Japan’s toy companies are carried out in neighbouring Asian countries like China. The toys are then re-imported to Japan or exported directly from the producing country to other nations.

Still, Kozuka says: “(If) we start in Japan, we hope consumers in developing countries will also be encouraged to force Japanese toy companies to follow the best safety policies (wherever they are).”

But she is pessimistic about getting more cooperation from Tokyo on the issue. As it is, she notes that the arrest of the Greenpeace volunteers has sounded alarm bells not only among those campaigning against PVC but also among activists pursuing other causes.

Says Kozuka: “The arbitrary way the police behaved has been a tremendous shock to Japan’s fledgling citizens’ movement.”

Greenpeace, “is an organisation that has taken a public stand against much bigger issues such as…Japan’s highly dangerous nuclear power industry, without much harassment from the police”, she adds.

But with the recent arrests, Kozuka says Tokyo is sending a clear message that it will no longer shirk from the use of force during protests by activists.