Manufacturers of baby diapers have pledged to secure their products, denounced as toxic by ANSES.
Recently pointed out by the Health Security Agency (Anses), manufacturers of baby diapers have undertaken “to indicate the components on their packaging”, announced Friday February 8 Hygiene group, their trade union.
“Manufacturers who are members of Group’Hygiene undertake to place on the French market baby diapers that do not contain any substances intentionally added to the product that are likely to have skin allergenic effects (corresponding to the 26 allergens of the European Regulation of cosmetic products)”, one can read. They also undertake “to reinforce their requirements both in their production environment and with their suppliers of raw materials via their specifications”.
Indicate the components of baby diapers on their packaging
Last January, ANSES revealed that health thresholds were exceeded for several toxic substances in many baby diapers. These included two fragrances (butylphenyl methyl propional and hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde) as well as certain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins and furans.
The majority of babies in France wear single-use diapers, which represents approximately 4,000 diapers used in the first three years of life. As a result, toxic substances can migrate into children’s urine and come into prolonged contact with their skin, causing allergies in particular.
“We cannot exclude a risk”
In order to be as realistic as possible, “we calculate an absorbed quantity according to the time of diaper wearing, the number of diapers worn by babies, up to 36 months, and we compare to toxicological reference values for each substances”, explained in LCI Gérard Lasfargues, Deputy Director General of the Sciences division for the expertise of the National Health Security Agency. “We cannot exclude a risk (…) since we observe an overrun of the health thresholds for a certain number of substances”, he added.
In view of the risks that these substances may pose to the health of babies, ANSES recommended eliminating them or reducing their presence as much as possible in disposable nappies, strengthening the control of these substances in nappies placed on the market and put in place a more restrictive regulatory framework governing these products.
Infants are also exposed to glyphosates
Two surveys of 60 million consumers had already shown that certain brands of baby diapers contained products dangerous to health. We were talking about glyphosate, pesticides, dioxins and volatile or halogenated organic compounds (VOCs), present in 2017 in the sector leader Pampers, and in 2018 at Mots d’enfant, the supermarket brand E. Leclerc, Love & Green, Lotus Baby, Pommette or even Lillydoo.
If the levels of undesirable substances are very low in these diapers, the health risk “cannot be ruled out”, estimated as ANSES 60 million consumers, because “infants are also exposed to glyphosates and VOCs via other sources.”
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