Chemicals in plastics can be harmful to your health.
The sex-toy industry is like a bad parent who lets its children chew on toxic toys.
Recently, Health Canada announced it would be banning the use of certain phthalates in products intended for kids, like teethers and rattles.
Meanwhile, adults can play with toys that, in certain animals, may cause anything from hormonal and reproductive problems to liver and kidney damage.
“The sex-toy industry is largely unregulated. Products are sold as novelty items, which makes manufacturers immune to certain regulations that would provide more quality control,” says Edmonton sexologist Brian Parker.
Most poorly made sex toys are often made of materials like jelly, plastic or latex, which are porous and can’t be properly sterilized. They can also have sharp seams, which may cause tears in the vaginal or rectal walls, and can cause allergic reactions and bacterial infections.
Phthalates, a type of chemical often added to plastics to increase their flexibility, are at the centre of an unfolding controversy about what can safely be put in one’s mouth, or anywhere else in one’s body. Over time, the phthalates may potentially leach out, releasing compounds that can be absorbed through the body’s mucus membranes.
“There’s huge money in the sex-toy industry, and it’s dominated by a couple of big companies, but they’re not pulling up their socks,” says Parker, who runs www.foreverpleasure.com, an online resource for adult sex education that also sells high-end silicone toys. Silicone is an ideal sex-toy material because it is non-porous, non-toxic, hypoallergenic, warms to the body quickly, and “carries vibration like a dream,” says Parker.
But buyers need to be wary of imitations, which are now flooding the market, because of increased awareness of health concerns.
“Some manufacturers say their toys are made of silicone when there’s only about 10-per-cent silicone. They need to be 100-per-cent medica or food-grade silicone, Pyrex glass or Elastomer to fully protect you,” says Parker.
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