Foam puzzel mats

[belgo]

Are sold in the UK? Belgium has just banned shops from selling them due to toxins in the mats. I am glad they are banned but it concerns me because I had them for my eldest daughter and she used to chew on them.

Article here in flemish (sorry).

They are sold in the UK as well I think - definitely plenty of foam play mats on Amazon. The article isn't very clear though on precisely what products they are talking about - and it's a little strange to have just one country taking such steps; surely if the concerns are major there would be EU action?

I wouldn't worry too much about your DD; it's not a nice thought, but tbh we are all full of chemicals and there is very little we can really do to influence it. A few years ago WWF was campaigning strongly on toxics and did blood tests on lots of people - the results were an eyeopener to me. The Generation X report makes for fascinating reading. The Chem Trust does a lot of work on it today.

As I said, It's not a nice thought - but it's a consequence of the society we live in today and on balance we're a lot healthier today than in the past (or at least, we live longer ). Many other people will tell you that the doses are so low that there's no need to worry. I disagree that it's no worry - but I would agree that it doesn't help to get overly worried about things outside your control.

oricella - they have banned all foam mats because the action taken last year wasn't strict enough.

I just remember dd1 using the pieces to bite on when she was teething, I can't believe I let her do that. I thought they were safe because they don;t break.

I got rid of them fairly quickly because they are a nightmare to keep clean.

You're right though, there is probably loads more stuff that I should be worrying about.

no, no - don't start worrying about other stuff! I was trying to put it in perspective - yes, there's loads of stuff to worry about, but really all you do is make yourself unhappy, because it is not always under your control

I'm still surprised about such unilateral action from Belgium though; I bet most of the stuff comes from China and will be sold elsewhere as well