What's Toxic In Toyland

They line the nursery section children's toy
stores like brightly colored candies: rubber duckies for bathtime,
chewable rings for teething, soft-covered books for pawing and
mouthing. Parents shopping for their babies can be forgiven if they
assume that everything on those shelves is 100% child safe. So why did
the city of San Francisco issue a ban last week on the sale of certain
plastic toys aimed at children under 3? And why are activists warning
holiday shoppers in the most alarming terms against buying them?
"Sucking on some of these teethers and toys," says Rachel Gibson of
Environment California, a nonprofit, "is like sucking on a toxic
lollipop."At issue are contaminants in
plastics used to make the toys. Environmentalists have long argued that
some of these chemicals can leach out and harm children, pointing to
animal studies