Sex toys are made up of many chemicals that are a mystery to most of us, that is for those of us who have ever wondered about the items we are using on ourselves and our loved ones. Well, there is a newly discussed chemical which is making a new scare these days and I thought it best to do a little detective work to see what toy users need to be aware of, what is out there on the internet that is misleading, and possibly see if we can learn of any hidden corporate agendas that might be causing all the attention to this new hot topic.

The latest issue regarding sex toys comes to us in the form of something called phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates). These chemicals are used to soften hard plastics and can be found in a variety of items used by people everyday ranging from food packaging, medical equipment and cosmetics to name a few. What happens is over time, these phthalates actually separate from the body of the product, so thereby causing toys to get sticky, to change color, and they begin to change flavor and take on a different smell.

After a seven-year battle initiated by health advocates to outlaw the use of phthalates in children's toys, in September of 2004, EU ministers voted to ban three phthalates (DEHP, DBP and BBP) from all products made for children, and all together prohibit the use of three others (DINP, DIDP and DNOP) in toys and any other item that could be placed in the mouth of a child under the age of three. A new issue was raised with the EU decision: if phthalates is dangerous to children, so much three of them being completely banned of use, what sort of decisions should be made about phthalates presence in sex toys?

Two independent European studies were published in September 2006, which purposed to attempt answering this question. The Danish Technological Institute (DTI) reviewed the more detailed of the two, Analysis and Health Risk Assessment of Chemical Substances in Sex Toys, as requested by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. The 81-page study examined the presence of phthalates along with other chemicals found in adult pleasurables, as well as attempted to interpret the impact of the substances on humans.

The Danish study offered many conclusions regarding health risks from sex toys, most of which were based on previous phthalate research conducted on lab animals--not humans. While prior studies found that few phthalates were toxic and/or carcinogenic to rats and mice when administered in enormous amounts, the Danish report concluded that the implied health hazards to humans from phthalates in sex toys were minimal to non-existent.

Greenpeace Netherlands sponsored a less ambitious study who hired Dutch research organization TNO to determine the presence of phthalates in some of the most common sex toys on the market. The final report was four pages and the results indicated seven out of the eight toys tested contained a minimum of at least one of the EU-banned plasticizers with concentrations ranging in weight from 24 to 49%.

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