Cancer-causing chemicals found in 87% of household objects tested in new U of T study

Cancer-causing chemicals were found in more than 87 per cent of the household objects tested in a new study conducted by University of Toronto researchers.

Their findings reveal the “ubiquitous detection” of carcinogenic chemicals called Chlorinated Paraffins (CPs), despite being banned in Canada a decade ago.

In the study, published on Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, researchers tested 96 products, including electronic devices, clothing, plastic toys and paintings, and discovered 84 of them contained CPs, an additive in plastics to make them softer.

“We were surprised that we found these compounds in almost all the products we tested,” Steven Kutarna, first author of the study and a University of Toronto PhD candidate, told CTV News Toronto on Tuesday.

There are three classifications of CPs: short-chain (SCCPs), medium-chain (MCCPs) and long-chain chlorinated paraffins (LCCPs).

The manufacture, sale, use, and import of SSCPs have been banned in Canada since 2013 due to their “harmful” effect on human health, but Kutarna said MCCPs and LCCPs, which have only been studied in the last decade or so, are “expected to be equally toxic.” SSCPs were also included in global bans under the UN Stockholm Convention in 2017.

However, the issue at play is tracking, sourcing and testing these chemicals, Kutarna said.

“Manufacturers in Canada can't use them directly as additives but … they could be added in one country and then that plastic is sent somewhere else to make a product and then it comes to another country,” Kutarna said.

Researchers found SSCPs most common in toys, especially products designed for infants and toddlers, which Kutarna said came as a surprise to his team and indicates potential exposure through hand-to-mouth transfer for young children.

Electronic devices like headphones showed comparable concentrations of the chemicals with the overall highest amount discovered in a shopping bag.

These findings are just the beginning of understanding the ubiquity, simplifying the detection and more broadly enforcing the regulation of these chemicals, Kutarna said.

“This is just the opening volley,” he added, nodding to his plans to dive deeper into the research of chemicals discovered in toys. “This is kind of just the first insight into this."