Chemical presence in your Christmas presents?

18 December 2002

Friends of the Earth's Safer Chemicals mascot Toxic Ted helped remind shoppers to beware of hidden toxic chemicals lurking in their Christmas shopping baskets. Risky chemicals in popular gift items mean that what is intended as a Christmas treat can in fact be a chemical threat.

Christmas smellies, children's toys and chocolate treats may all be contaminated with risky chemicals. And not all the threats will be listed on the label, so even wary customers may find more than they bargained for in the gifts they buy.

Even a tasty chocolate treat hides hidden threats as traces of the pesticide lindane have been found in chocolate sold in the UK. Lindane has been linked to breast cancer, birth defects and damage to the nervous system and has now been banned in the European Union. But it is still used by some cocoa growers in West Africa - putting plantation workers at risk - and traces were found in pesticide tests of Cadbury's chocolate earlier this year. Chocolate lovers can avoid the threat by buying organic chocolate - and buying a fair-trade label will ensure the growers have received a fair price for their produce as well.

Friends of the Earth is campaigning for tough new European laws to control the use of chemicals in products, with draft laws currently being considered by the European Commission. The UK Government has recently published its draft position on the new EU laws but Friends of the Earth is calling on Ministers to take a tougher position on chemicals that build up in the body and disrupt the hormone system so that they are phased out of consumer products.

High street retailers are also backing the campaign for safer chemicals by signing up to Friends of the Earth's risky chemicals pledge. Twelve stores have so far signed.

Friends of the Earth Safer Chemicals Campaigner Clare Oxborrow said: "A Christmas gift should be a source of pleasure, not a cause for concern, yet all kinds of risky chemicals lurk in the presents we will give and receive. Shoppers can take steps to reduce their exposure to these chemical surprises, but ultimately UK and European politicians, consumer product manufacturers and retailers should join forces and make a Christmas promise to get rid of risky chemicals in consumer products."

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