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Toxic finger paints Almost all products for children contain harmful substances
Finger paints are among the more popular creative techniques in children. With them, the little ones can let off steam to their heart's content and paint colorful pictures with their hands or feet. But the colors are obviously not safe, but in many cases contain harmful pollutants. After a test, the magazine "consumer" could recommend only one of 14 examined products.
Colors are equally popular with children and adults
Mix colors with your hands, paint your feet and make colorful prints or just splash around wildly: children love finger paints and like to use them to "let off steam" artistically. Even with parents and educators, the colorful paint pots are very popular because they offer a lot of room for creativity and can be used by smaller children. The disadvantage, however, is that the paint quickly spread throughout painting and clothes, hair and faces are usually not spared. It can happen quickly that some color gets into the mouth. To avoid ingestion, finger paints must therefore be coated with bittering agents according to the toy standard, the consumer magazine "Konsument" reports on its website.
Finger paints with critical substances. Picture: st-photographer - fotolia 12 products contain questionable formaldehyde
Parents and educators should nevertheless be on guard, because many products contain apparently problematic ingredients. Experts came to this conclusion from the "consumer" after investigation of 14 different finger paints. Consumer protection agencies reportedly tested the colors of "Mucki", "Primo" and "Stylex", among others. The "Mini Kids 4 finger paints" from Crayola and the "Noris Club 4 finger paint" from Staedtler are under the microscope.
The test showed that only one of the products - the finger paints A set of the supplier "ÖkoNorm Nawaro" - could be evaluated as recommendable. The other 13 products, however, should not be used because of the preservatives used, advise the experts. "Some of the products contain a whole cocktail of various dubious compounds," according to consumer advocates, according to the "Tiroler Tageszeitung" newspaper. Accordingly, in all colors except the test winner and the product of the brand "Marabu" formaldehyde has been found. "The use of formaldehyde and its derivatives is problematic because formaldehyde can act as an allergen on skin contact and can cause cancer when inhaled. The use is therefore not acceptable for us, "the testers explain further.
Producers of children's products are particularly responsible
In addition, the compound methylisothiazolinone (or chloromethylisothiazolinone), which is "in disrepute as a strong contact allergen" and was to be subject to lower limit values from November 2017, was found in six paint pots. At the present time, the manufacturers of the 13 products criticized had complied with the legal requirements and had not used any unauthorized means or exceeded limit values - but that was not enough for the consumer advocates: "Especially in this product category, we expect manufacturers to focus on the use of problematic substances renounce ", so the demand. (No)