Love Stinks
Greenpeace Netherlands has issued a statement warning sex toy lovers not to shove the "Spectra Gel Anal Plug" or the "Crystal Jelly Double Dong" where the sun don't shine, according to an eye-watering report on Expatica.

Erotic toys are made of polyvinyl chlorides (PVC) -- plastics long decried by eco-activists for the toxins released during their manufacture and disposal -- and softened with phthalates, a controversial family of chemicals. These include invitingly soft "jelly" or "cyberskin" items, which have grown popular in the last decade or so, says Carol Queen, Ph.D., "staff sexologist" for the San Francisco-based adult toy boutique Good Vibrations. "It's actually difficult for a store today to carry plenty of items and yet avoid PVC," Queen says. "Its use has gotten pretty ubiquitous among the large purveyors, because it's cheap and easy to work with."


The reason behind the shock advisory is not the possible risk of ending up in hospital with a dildo stuck firmly up your jacksie and having to endure the humiliating laughter of medical staff who avail themselves of the opportunity of grabbing a few X-rays for later dissemination on the internet, but rather that sex toys apparently contain "extremely high concentrations of phthalate plasticisers which allegedly pose a risk to human health and the environment".


In recent years, testing has revealed the potentially serious health impacts of phthalates. Studies on rats and mice suggest that exposure could cause cancer and damage the reproductive system. Minute levels of some phthalates have been linked to sperm damage in men, and this year, two published studies linked phthalate exposure in the womb and through breast milk to male reproductive issues.

A study in 2000 by German chemist Hans Ulrich Krieg found that 10 dangerous chemicals gassed out of some sex toys available in Europe, including diethylhexyl phthalates. Some had phthalate concentrations as high as 243,000 parts per million -- a number characterized as "off the charts" by Davis Baltz of the health advocacy group Commonweal. "We were really shocked," Krieg told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Marketplace in a 2001 report on the sex-toy industry. "I have been doing this analysis of consumer goods for more than 10 years, and I've never seen such high results."

The danger, says Baltz, is that heat, agitation, and extended shelf life can accelerate the leaching of phthalates. "In addition, [phthalates are] lipophilic, meaning they are drawn to fat," he says. "If they come into contact with solutions or substances that have lipid content, the fat could actually help draw the phthalates out of the plastic." Janice Cripe, a former buyer for Blowfish -- a Bay Area-based online company whose motto is "Good Products for Great Sex" -- confirms the instability of jelly toys: "They would leak," she says. "They'd leach this sort of oily stuff. They would turn milky" and had a "kind of plasticky, rubbery odor." She stopped ordering many jelly toys during her time at Blowfish, even though their lower prices made them popular.

So what's being done to protect consumers? Well, nothing. While the U.S., Japan, Canada, and the European Union have undertaken various restrictions regarding phthalates in children's toys, no such rules exist for adult toys. In order to be regulated in the U.S. under current law, sex toys would have to present what the federal government's Consumer Product Safety Commission calls a "substantial product hazard" -- essentially, a danger from materials or design that, in the course of using the product as it's made to be used, could cause major injury or death. But if you look at the packaging of your average mock penis or ersatz vagina, it's probably been labeled as a "novelty," a gag gift not intended for actual use. That's an important semantic dodge that allows less scrupulous manufacturers to elude responsibility for potentially harmful materials, and to evade government regulation. If you stick it somewhere it wasn't meant to go, well -- caveat emptor, baby!

SO are u saying vibrators can poison you /give u cancer from the chemicals and rubber its made from?

not that i have one..i tried one once and i ached from within...maybe i just needed a man at that point , but seriously it had a strong rubber and chemically clean smell and i wondering if that gets inside a person , could it get in ur bloodstream>??

JUST curious.

confused3dont think i'll be buying it for my friend then.

Thats why I prefer to stick to the real thing. Having said that, that could be even more dangerous!

Well the vibrator is convenient really and wont get you pregnant, give you nasty diseases and that.

Soulstarr wrote:
I think the warning is targeted to regular users of vibrators, I wouldn't sweat about it if I were you - knock yourself out , have the kinkiest party ann summers ever had and make lots of cash selling toys.blkrainbowfro

Footprints wrote: Yes Soulstarr, you go ahead peddling in these agents of death!

Go ahead, put yourself up there with the guns andweapons dealers, not carrying about the death and distruction they cause but simply washing their hands of responsibility with the comment "I just sell theguns, I don't tell people to kill. I don't force anyone to buy!"

Would you be able to sleep easy at night knowing that one of your customers had her last, but deadly, orgasm curteousy of you making 15% commision?

Oh what a callous world we live in!

Respect

Wow. No part of that attack was called for Backatya and you are WAY out of line.

BeforeI even read this thread, I booked an Ann Summers party as a fun way to celebrate my birthday. They will not be MY customers so I will not be making any damn commission from being aglorified murderer which is what you've practically called me.where is my crime in wanting to have a little fun on my birthday? And how is me holding an ann summers party the same as me selling crack to a junkie or whatever other euphemism for diminished responsibility you may wanna use.

My friends are interested in havin a few giggles, playin some stupid games while tipsy on some cheap plonkand buying a couple of friggin thongs or a silly keyring. Believe it or not, ann summers sell more than just dildo's and sex toys and the couple that may wanna invest in something more hardcore would probably read this information and take the gamble said way. Their decision NOT mine.

Labeling me as some kind undercover murderer ain't even right.