This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Seguridad en los juguetes

Safety in toys

01/06/2006

It is a fact of life: infants and young children explore the world with their mouths. At the time of birth, a baby's mouth is much more sensitive to touch differentiation to their limbs. The small ones are anything in her mouth, either their hands or feet, teethers or ducklings balls, dolls or rubber, the list is endless.

With mouths so weird like these, it is not surprising that the safety of children is of utmost importance for the manufacturers and owners of trade marks of toys around the world when it comes to selecting solutions for raw materials that comply with the most stringent regulatory requirements and which are suitable for use in toys. To find plasticizers that meet these criteria, it is not necessary to look beyond the plasticizer 168 Eastman of Eastman Chemical Company.

"Eastman 168 provides manufacturers a plasticizer of substitution which does not present problems;" "in addition, its clean toxicological profile offers traders and owners of trade marks of toys the confidence they need to feel safe that the plasticizer used complies with the most stringent regulatory requirements," said Rick Johnson, Vice President of the Group of high-performance chemicals businesscomposed by intermediate and fibers of Eastman. "We are pleased to participate in the conversion of the toy industry towards the use of softeners without dibutyl."

Eastman 168 has a very clean toxicological profile and is not an imitator of estrogen or an antiandrogenic (i.e., does not produce endocrine disorders). This product not induce to peroxisome proliferation and is not carcinogenic. The plasticizer 168 Eastman is the choice of low-risk for the Group companies and their suppliers who seek an alternative plasticizer for use in toys, which children under three years of age could lead to the mouth.

"With the plasticizer Eastman 168, offer to the toy industry a solution in search of the better plasticizer without dibutyl," said Dr. Martin Stimpson, Manager of business relations of the plasticizers of Eastman in Europe. "Our comprehensive toxicological and application tests have shown that Eastman 168 is the material chosen for the manufacturers of toys looking for performance, ease of processing and compliance with new European regulations."

Unlike other alternative plasticizers, it is not necessary to make reformulations with plasticizer Eastman 168, which reduces the risk of errors in wording that could give as a result costly withdrawals of the product or consumer complaints. Eastman 168 is a plasticizer excellent in general use that offers good properties of performance and resistance to removal caused by soapy water. Due to its excellent flexibility at low temperature, it is less likely that the toys made with the plasticizer 168 Eastman is agrieten or break by cold weather if left outdoors after playing. The plasticizer 168 Eastman has excellent properties of not migration to the typical coating of nitrocellulose wood and the adjacent parts of ABS.

As for the plastisoles, the plasticizer 168 Eastman has resulted in a low initial viscosity and exceptional stability of the viscosity. It also allows an extraordinary ease of processing, which allows companies of moulds operate at profitable speeds and with cycles faster, as well as providing a uniform thickness on the walls.