With the recent epidemic of poisoned children’s toys from China, it would serve us well to look at other possible contaminated toys from the Far East as well. Specifically I am talking about sex toys. It seems we Americans put lots of things into orifices in our bodies that are of unknown origin and have had little if any product testing. Luckily the Danes, those randy Scandinavians, are arguably the most sophisticated and knowledgeable people on earth when it comes to sex. Their government equivalent of the EPA did a series of tests on sex toys and found some disturbing information.
Seems many of the dildos, vibrators and artificial organs sold in Danish sex shops and on the internet contain high levels of substances that could be considered dangerous. By rigorously testing these sex gadgets the Danish study found that out of the 16 toys they tested, 3 had arsenic, 6 antimony, 12 lead, and 7 cadmium. Cadmium is bio-cumulative and each time you are exposed to it the it adds to the total exposure. Sound scary? Kind of.
Results of the test were published in this paper, and though most of the toys pose little risk, some do especially to pregnant mothers or mothers nursing babies. Additionally they only tested 16 randomly selected toys, a fuller study will need to be done.
What does this all mean? Well in my opinion, use of a sex toy without a condom is a needless risk, and sex toys produced in China should always be suspect. Sorry to keep China bashing, but until their government actually enforces the regulations they have written into law, nothing from behind the Great Wall should be taken for granted. Look for that label and handle with care. By the way don’t expect our government to do anything about it, since we officially don’t talk about any of that naughty stuff that just might kill us.
Thanks to the folks at Tantus Silicone for the link to the report.
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2 comments:
Why be sorry for China-bashing? Their country's business ethics certainly seem to be lacking and not enough critism is going against them in my opinion. Interesting information that not many others are picking up on re: the sex toys.
I wonder the same about dog chew toys - dogs specifically mouth and often swallow bits of these toys and I noticed (and did not buy) that in the past year or two the toys for sale in the dog store changed in appearance - I noticed that were made in China. They have started to have very bright paint applied to them (rather than colored plastic) which I was afraid could flake off, and which seemed to have none of those normal labels you expect saying 'non toxic' or 'safe for chewing' etc.. I wonder if they also contain lead paint.
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