What should you do with art supplies that have toxins?
Reports of undisclosed chemicals in hundreds of art products and toys have left Maine parents and educators questioning whether it is safe to keep using the markers, clay and fingerpaints in their homes and classrooms.
Public health advocates say there are no easy answers.
“That’s a tricky question,” said Emily Carey Perez de Alejo, director of Defend Our Health, the Portland-based public health organization that recently audited hazardous chemical filings in several states. “The most likely appropriate response is to discard them in the regular trash when you are finished using the product.”
Related
Major toy companies did not disclose toxic chemicals in Maine
While using up the supplies, parents and teachers should increase room ventilation, stop children from drawing on their bodies and enforce hand-washing immediately after craft time, said Perez de Alejo.
Defend Our Health found that some companies, including Crayola, reported hazardous chemicals such as formaldehyde in its products in other states but not in Maine.
The group is calling on Crayola to remove the carcinogen from its products and give Maine buyers full refunds or nontoxic replacements. Perez de Alejo said safe disposal of spent products should fall on product manufacturers, not the consumers.
Crayola said its products are safe to use and that the formaldehyde found in them is the result of contamination, which does not need to be reported in Maine and was mischaracterized in disclosures to other states.
Companies that make children’s goods with high-risk chemicals should set up stewardship programs like those that exist for batteries and lightbulbs, Perez de Alejo said. This would allow buyers to return used markers to retail stores for safe collection.
Advertisement
Without a take-back program, the tossed supplies face a grim environmental trajectory in Maine.
Municipal hazardous waste facilities generally reject such household items, like Teflon-coated cookware that contains forever chemicals, Perez de Alejo said. Consumers have no choice but to throw such items into ordinary household trash.
That trash ultimately ends up buried in landfills like the state-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill near Old Town. Over time, chemical preservatives in buried plastic goods turn into landfill runoff, or effluent, which must then be treated or discharged into local watersheds, she said.
Related
Is your skillet made with forever chemicals?
Gail Carlson, a Colby College environmental studies professor who studies the impact of toxic chemicals in local environments, says “there is little we can do” with toxic household goods that are not eligible for hazardous waste pickup or a manufacturer take-back program.
That is why states like Maine adopt laws mandating extended stewardship programs, she said.
“We are left with unfortunate waste disposal options,” Carlson said. “I might suggest capping the markers, sealing the finger paint and clay and storing them in a plastic sealed box. Label the box ‘contains formaldehyde.’ And check with local hazardous waste officials.”
Advertisement
Maine wouldn’t have to do this if it just banned formaldehyde in children’s products, she noted.
Carlson warned against incinerating the spent art supplies. Under high heat, formaldehyde will volatilize and escape into the air. Carlson said there is no safe level of exposure.
Doctors say chemicals pose a higher risk to children because their bodies are still growing. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics says prolonged exposure to formaldehyde can trigger severe allergies and is tied to increase cancer risks.
Crayola maintains that its products are safe and earned nontoxic seals from the Art and Creative Materials Institute, which means toxicologists have evaluated Crayola formulas for acute and chronic hazards. But those evaluations are proprietary and not shared with the public.
“Crayola does not intentionally add formaldehyde to any of its products,” said the company’s corporate communications manager Karen Kelly. “Contaminant-level formaldehyde, however, is reflected by virtue of two preservatives.”
The reason for the contradictory reporting is based on how the states worded their product laws.
Advertisement
Washington and Oregon continue to list formaldehyde as a Crayola additive. In those states, laws focus on a chemical’s functional intent. Crayola adds a preservative to a marker, it degrades into measurable formaldehyde in the marker, so it is deemed a hazard.
Maine’s Kids Safe Product Act requires a company to disclose if it adds one of nine high-hazard chemicals to a product intended for use by children under 12, including formaldehyde. Under the law, the product containing a properly documented high priority chemical can still be sold.
Crayola argues it does not have to disclose the formaldehyde found in its art products to Maine because it adds an ingredient that creates it, not the regulated chemical itself. Under Maine law, that would make the formaldehyde a contaminant, not an additive.
Kelley said the company submitted corrections to Washington and Oregon requesting that the chemical be reclassified as a contaminant instead of an additive in its filings there, too.
To successfully claim the contaminant exemption in Maine, however, the company must have internal testing proving the formaldehyde byproduct falls below 100 parts per million. That’s equal to about a drop of ink in a standard two-liter soda bottle.
Perez de Alejo argues Crayola is putting children at risk by flouting the intent of Maine’s law. “I’m not sure consumers can trust Crayola to be honest about what’s in their product,” Perez de Alejo said. “Without public disclosure and real state oversight, parents are left guessing.”
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is working on a way to share chemical disclosure reports with the public, said Deputy Commissioner David Madore. The agency contacted Crayola after learning it had filed formaldehyde disclosures in other states.
Crayola has since submitted a certificate of compliance attesting that its products are free of intentionally added formaldehyde, Madore said. The DEP has asked Crayola to provide proof that it is trying to minimize the presence of formaldehyde in the manufacturing process.
The state did not ask for Crayola’s internal testing to confirm the amount of formaldehyde in its products fell below 100 parts per million concentration levels. Kelly is reviewing the Portland Press Herald’s request for those records.
Copy the Story Link
Tagged: children, environmental health, public health
Penny is excited to be the Portland Press Herald’s first climate reporter. Since joining the paper in 2016, she has written about Maine’s lobster and cannabis industries, covered state politics and. More by Penelope Overton
