I was recently reading Wednesday’s Daily Free Press and I came across an article about the “risks” of chemicals called phthalates, which are found in products such as shower curtains and childrens’ toys. The article cites Richard Clapp, an environmental epidemologist right here at BU. What the article and Mr. Clapp fail to mention is that the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently released a report that said there is “no demonstrated health risk” to using products containing phthalates. Although some plastic toys contain phthalates, the amount of time that children put these items in their mouth does not pose a risk of any disease. The study shows that children between 12-24 months, the time period during which children are most likely to put these types of toys in their mouths, only chew on them for an average of 1.9 minutes a day. This is far lower than the 75 minutes a day that is recognized as a harmful dose. While I don’t mean to insult Mr. Clapp or this newspaper, I wish that these environmental “scientists” would tell the whole truth. However, when the whole truth is told, we often see how devoid of fact these chemical scares really are.
-Jeff Hexel CAS ’05 (914) 456-8518
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