Scientific Committee for Toxicity Ecotoxicity and the Environment

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... 

The TDI values settle by the EFSA in 2005 (Table 3) were different from those calculated by the Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (CSTEE) in 1998 [134] based on the phthalate migration from soft PVC toys and child care articles, and the available toxicity studies on animals at that time [117, 122, 135], with the following values DBP (TDI of 100 pg/kg b.w./day), BBP (TDI of 200 pg/kg b.w./day), and DiDP (TDI of 200 pg/kg b.w./day), but they... 

CSTEE (1998) Opinion on Some Practical Implications of the Proposed Modifications to the Water Framework Directive (Annex V). Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment Opinion Adopted by Written Procedure, 5 June, 1998 CSTEE, Brussels. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency, Reference Dose (RfD) Description and Use in Health Risk Assessments. Background Document 1A (March 15, 1993) internet http //www.epa.gov/iris/rfd.htm. Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment, Opinion on Phthalate migration from soft PVC toys and child-care articles - opinion expressed at the 6th CSTEE plenary meeting, Brussels, 26/27 November 1998, internet http //europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/sct/outl9 en.html. 

The highest scientific body of the European Union, the EU Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (CSTEE), concluded in 1998 on the basis of an extensive review of the available data, that there are safe migration limits for phthalates. In a scientific opinion, the Committee stated that phthalate plasticizers can safely be used in the production on soft PVC toys, provided that migration limits are observed. It suggested guideline migration limits for each of six phthalate plasticizers. 

Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (SCTEE). Directorate General for Consumer Policy and Consumer Health Protection, Brussels, 1999. 

At EU level the Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (CSTEE) has established standard protocols for the extraction of phthalates from plasticized PVC toys. In 1999 the European Commission banned the use of DEHP in PVC toys and other easily mouthed items intended for children under 3 years of age as a precaution against the uncertain impact of phthalates on young children [127]. 

Janssen P, van Veen M, van Apeldoom M, Speijers G Phthalates in teething rings/animal figures for infants. Advisory report 5293. Brussels, EU Committee Scientific on Toxicity Ecotoxicity and the Environment, 1997. 

CSTEE (1999) DG XXIV Scientific Committee for Toxicity and Ecotoxicity and the Environment Opinion on revised proposal for a list of Priority substances in the context of the water framework directive (COMMs Procedure) prepared by the Frauenhofer-Institute, Germany,. Final report opinion adopted at the 11 CSTEE plenary meeting on 28 of September 1999... 

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