Remember Play-Doh? It’s been several decades since I was intimate with Play-Doh, but every so often I’m near a small person who pops the lid off a can and the aroma sends me back to Mrs. Sibs’s kindergarten class.
For nearly 50 years, children have been modeling, mashing, squishing, sculpting and let’s not forget eating, Play-Doh. And that’s OK, because Play-Doh is made from water and flour and salt.
But this not a commercial for Play-Doh. It’s warning about what might be called anti-Play-Doh. Polymer clays are the new hot thing for the under-ten arts and crafts set. The colors are bright, the material is pleasantly malleable and if you want to keep little Michaelangelo’s creation forever, you can bake it in the oven.
Only one problem – polymer clays, marketed under brand names like Sculpey and Fimo – are poison. It’s probably wrong to call polymer clays clay, since they’re closer to plastic in composition. To keep them soft and smooth, the folks at Fimo and Sculpey add phthalates to the clay. It seems repetitive to run through the health effects connected to exposure to phthalates, but for those of you who may have missed all those other industrial pollutants, phthalates are linked to liver and thyroid damage, birth defects, reproductive disorders and that old standby, cancer.
Why, in the name of sanity, would anyone want to put toxic industrial chemicals into children’s clay? You know they’re going to get it all over their hands and then put their hands into their mouths. You know they’re going to make little clay and plates and put them into their mouths. It’s what kids do, it’s part of their job description.
But wait, it gets worse. Not only are polymer clays full of toxic chemicals, but when you bake them in the oven, like it says on the directions, you have to be careful not to overheat the clay, because when you overheat polymer clay, it releases a cloud of hydrogen chloride gas. This is not something that will kill your child 20 years down the road. Hydrogen chloride gas can cause respiratory arrest and kill you immediately.
There you are on a rainy summer afternoon with all the neighborhood kids in the house, playing with the clay, with the hands in the mouths, then we put the sculptures in the oven, and of course, with seven screaming kids in the kitchen, you’ll have nothing to distract you from keeping an eye on the clock to make sure the clay doesn’t overheat.
The packages of polymer clay – did I mention the brand names are Fimo and Sculpey? – have statements which declare the clay is “non-toxic.” This “non-toxic” designation does not come from Underwriters Laboratories or Consumers Union. The “non-toxic” label comes from the Art and Creative Materials Institute, a trade association funded by the people who make Fimo and Sculpey.
Why, oh why do we have to put toxic chemicals into our kids’ modeling clay? Like I said, Play-Doh has been around for 50 years – it’s water and flour and salt, you can eat it. Clay itself has been around for 50,000 years – it was one of the first materials used by humans.
People who ran around in skins and poked water buffalo with pointy sticks knew enough not to defecate in the clay they used for pots, but we, with the internet, space shuttles and video poker, apparently do not.
There should be no poison in children’s toys. If you’ve got polymer clay in your home, dispose of it as if it was toxic waste. If you’ve got little ones going to pre-school or kindergarten next month, talk to the teachers about art supplies. And if anyone from the Consumer Product Safety Commission is listening – get out there and start earning your pay.
Feat of Clay
Remember Play-Doh? It’s been several decades since I was intimate with Play-Doh, but every so often I’m near a small person who pops the lid off a can and the aroma sends me back to Mrs. Sibs’s kindergarten class.
For nearly 50 years, children have been modeling, mashing, squishing, sculpting and let’s not forget eating, Play-Doh. And that’s OK, because Play-Doh is made from water and flour and salt.
But this not a commercial for Play-Doh. It’s warning about what might be called anti-Play-Doh. Polymer clays are the new hot thing for the under-ten arts and crafts set. The colors are bright, the material is pleasantly malleable and if you want to keep little Michaelangelo’s creation forever, you can bake it in the oven.
Only one problem – polymer clays, marketed under brand names like Sculpey and Fimo – are poison. It’s probably wrong to call polymer clays clay, since they’re closer to plastic in composition. To keep them soft and smooth, the folks at Fimo and Sculpey add phthalates to the clay. It seems repetitive to run through the health effects connected to exposure to phthalates, but for those of you who may have missed all those other industrial pollutants, phthalates are linked to liver and thyroid damage, birth defects, reproductive disorders and that old standby, cancer.
Why, in the name of sanity, would anyone want to put toxic industrial chemicals into children’s clay? You know they’re going to get it all over their hands and then put their hands into their mouths. You know they’re going to make little clay and plates and put them into their mouths. It’s what kids do, it’s part of their job description.
But wait, it gets worse. Not only are polymer clays full of toxic chemicals, but when you bake them in the oven, like it says on the directions, you have to be careful not to overheat the clay, because when you overheat polymer clay, it releases a cloud of hydrogen chloride gas. This is not something that will kill your child 20 years down the road. Hydrogen chloride gas can cause respiratory arrest and kill you immediately.
There you are on a rainy summer afternoon with all the neighborhood kids in the house, playing with the clay, with the hands in the mouths, then we put the sculptures in the oven, and of course, with seven screaming kids in the kitchen, you’ll have nothing to distract you from keeping an eye on the clock to make sure the clay doesn’t overheat.
The packages of polymer clay – did I mention the brand names are Fimo and Sculpey? – have statements which declare the clay is “non-toxic.” This “non-toxic” designation does not come from Underwriters Laboratories or Consumers Union. The “non-toxic” label comes from the Art and Creative Materials Institute, a trade association funded by the people who make Fimo and Sculpey.
Why, oh why do we have to put toxic chemicals into our kids’ modeling clay? Like I said, Play-Doh has been around for 50 years – it’s water and flour and salt, you can eat it. Clay itself has been around for 50,000 years – it was one of the first materials used by humans.
People who ran around in skins and poked water buffalo with pointy sticks knew enough not to defecate in the clay they used for pots, but we, with the internet, space shuttles and video poker, apparently do not.
There should be no poison in children’s toys. If you’ve got polymer clay in your home, dispose of it as if it was toxic waste. If you’ve got little ones going to pre-school or kindergarten next month, talk to the teachers about art supplies. And if anyone from the Consumer Product Safety Commission is listening – get out there and start earning your pay.