Target Stores Move To Reduce Toxic Toys

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 6, 2007 at 12:03 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

A major retail chain with 16 stores in San Diego County is planning to reduce its use of PVC plastic. PVC, commonly called vinyl, often contains harmful toxic additives such as lead that cause a varie

A major retail chain with 16 stores in San Diego County is planning to reduce its use of PVC plastic. PVC, commonly called vinyl, often contains harmful toxic additives such as lead that cause a variety of health problems. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce has details.

Target stores plan to cut use of polyvinyl chloride or PVC plastic. Toxic substances in PVC, including phthalates, cause learning and developmental problems and reproductive harm.

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Charles Margulis is with the California Center for Environmental Health.

Margulis : Target being one of the largest retailers in the country eliminating PVC which is a poison plastic, is a major sign to other companies, manufacturers and retailers, that they need to start doing the same. That they need to look at the environmental effects of the products that they're selling.

Last year, the Center for Environmental Health sued Target for selling lead-tainted PVC lunchboxes. Target says all children's lunch boxes and utensils in its own brands are now PVC-free, and that in some products it will use phthalate-free PVC. Phthalates have been linked to health problems in boys and girls. California recently banned certain phthalates in products for young children.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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