A new global survey finds that recycling plastics containing toxic flame retardant chemicals found in electronic waste results in contamination of the world’s best-selling toy along with other children’s products. Ironically, the chemical contaminants can damage the nervous system and reduce intellectual capacity but are found in Rubik’s Cubes – a puzzle toy designed to exercise the mind.
At the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions Conferences of the Parties (COP) in April 2017, key decisions will be made that define what is included as POPs waste. The definition will be based on a threshold concentration for a range of specific POPs (e.g. dioxin, PCBs, PFOS, etc.) and any waste containing more than that threshold concentration value will be defined as "POPs waste."’ Such POPs waste will be subject to measures as required under Article 6 of the Stockholm Convention to ensure that it is “Disposed of in such a way that the persistent organic pollutant content is destroyed or irreversibly transformed.”
(Beijing, China) High levels of dioxins and similar dangerous pollutants were found in free range chicken eggs samples taken close to waste incinerators and other industrial hot spots in six localities in China, according to a new study released today. Chicken eggs are an important part of the Chinese diet, and the study warned that contamination found in the egg samples represents a serious threat to the public health of populations living in these locations.
The United Nations Environment Programme called marine plastics the “new toxic time- bomb.” Marine plastic is not only entangling and drowning wildlife, it is being mistaken for food and ingested along with its toxic contaminants. Marine plastics, and, in particular microplastics, provide a global transport medium for the most toxic chemicals into the marine food chain and ultimately, to humans.
MANILA, Dec. 4 (PNA) -- The EcoWaste coalition has expressed serious concern over the recycling of plastics containing toxic substances into children's toys that are sold in the local market.