These are not toys for you!

“Interlocutor” is opening a new section in which, with the help of authoritative experts, we will try to find out what we actually eat, drink, and wear.

We will independently examine popular products and products and report the results in the newspaper. We decided to start with goods for children - children's toys. Are the suspicions that Chinese baby dolls are “poisonous” true and what danger do cute soft toys pose?

Test progress

For the purity of the experiment, we purchased several different toys in different places - in a large store and at the market. It was assumed that the manufacturers would also be different. But it quickly became clear that the Chinese predominate among the “toy population”. It was very difficult to open the Russian toy. And even if a Russian or European company was indicated on the label, its true “citizenship” – Made in China – was still printed below in small print. As a result, in the set that we bought, the advantage was in the direction of hardworking Asians: a rubber dragon, a popular doll from the American cartoon “Bratz”, a plastic rattle in the shape of a snowman and even the native Cheburashka were made in China, and only a set of bath steamers turned out to be “compatriots”.

“The fact that all Chinese toys are bad is a persistent modern myth,” Lyudmila Nadezhina, a leading expert at the Scientific Center for Children’s Health, commented to Sobesednik, to whom we handed over the entire set of purchases for examination. – In fact, in China there are excellent manufacturers and large factories with their own strict quality control. This data is usually indicated on the label, which parents should still read before purchasing. There should also be information about compliance with SanPiN - this means the toy has passed control. Risks include counterfeits, artisanal goods, contraband, and goods with fake certificates that cannot be traced.

The Scientific Center for Children's Health is one of the accredited laboratories that monitors the quality of children's toys. A complete list of such laboratories is available in Rospotrebnadzor, the country’s main control body.

Carefully!

Of our five subjects, suspicion immediately fell on the two most harmless-looking ones from the entire set - the little dragon and Cheburashka. Both were without packaging, which means hygiene was poor. On the way to the consumer, the rubber dragon skin could have picked up any kind of contaminants and bacteria, but Cheburashka’s fur coat had time to become dusty, and besides, wool was creeping in, which a young child could “eat up on.” Although the glamorous Bratz doll has surpassed its older sister, Barbie, in the ratings of children's preferences, there may also be complaints about it: it is in a plastic bag that does not allow the dyes to erode.

– Ideal packaging is mesh, cardboard boxes and other natural materials that allow the toy to “breathe”. In this case, the harmful volatile compounds have time to disappear before the doll gets into the hands of the child,” comments Lyudmila Nadezhina.

In the laboratory there is a shelf with children's toys. An ordinary children's shelf, but above it there is a frightening inscription: “Museum of Crappy Products.” Each toy has a tag with a “sentence.” For example, the plastic frog and baby penguin displayed here bring children not only joy, but also phenol fumes. The plasticine set contains too much acetone. The pink-cheeked baby doll sings so much that it threatens its little owner with hearing loss. The pencils seem to have been made from trees from Chernobyl - they have abnormal radiation levels. Spiderman on a motorcycle “ate” at a factory of phthalates, which in Europe are generally prohibited from being used in the production of children's products. The liquid bottle shows its insidiousness when hot water is poured into it - it begins to emit a paraffin smell. Children's dishes made of melamine are also a potential danger. If a doll “eats” from it, of course, nothing, but if a child licks a spoon or drinks from a cup, unfortunately, he is guaranteed a portion of formaldehyde in his body. Of course, all of them individually are not fatal, but they tend to accumulate in the body and undermine the immune system.

Method

It turns out that they check children's toys in a very adult way. A water or air extract is taken from the toy (the doll is “soaked” in water or air for 24 hours). Then - “scientific magic”: cattle sperm is added to the extract and the toxicity is determined by the reaction of the sperm.
“In some cases, sperm die immediately - this is the worst thing, and sometimes, on the contrary, they begin to “go crazy” like drunk people - this happens from excess ethanol and methyl alcohol,” explains Lyudmila Nadezhina.

Fortunately, our toys have not been shown to pose a toxic hazard. But there is still something to complain about.