Health issues toxicity test methods

Europe s controversy over soft PVC toys looks set to continue after EU health experts rejected the best available method for assessing the dangers to children. The so-called Dutch migration test was designed to mimic the way phthalate softeners leak out of PVC when it is sucked or chewed. Manufacturers had hoped the EU s Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment would accept the method as a standard test for phthalate migration, allowing it to be used across the EU, but the committee ruled that the Dutch test was unreliable. It also rejected a similar test developed in the UK, and issued a list of changes that would have to be made before either... 

---