Dhaka: Toys frequently bought for kids pose potential health hazard to minor children as they often put toys containing toxic agents in their mouths that could lead to liver or kidney damages.

Health experts and doctors have warned the parents about choosing toys saying playthings may appear poisonous for their children.

Excessive presence of substances, used to make hard plastic flexible and more durable, is the real cause of the toxicity.

Though there is no regulation in Bangladesh, according to United States and European Union laws the substances in any toy should not be more than 0.1 % at concentrations.

‘A child’s exposure to poisonous chemicals like lead, cadmium, bromine, chromium and other elements can lead to many adverse effects,’ National Professor doctor MR Khan said.

Toxic toys can cause disorders like bone-softening, kidney problems, liver toxicity and estrogenic effects or cancer and hamper the kids’ learning disabilities, he added.

Due to frequent hand-to-mouth movement, the minor children easily swallow toxin contained in their toys, he said.

‘If children swallow or chew a toy containing unsafe levels of metals, they can suffer significant and sometimes permanent damage to their mental health as well,’ he said.

Health environment expert Hossain Shahriar said different types of toys found in the market contained high concentration of toxic heavy metals which are dangerous for children.

He added that plastic toys in some cases are found to be contaminated and beyond general perception ‘plastic too could contain lead’, which is considered highly toxic.

‘Many toys contain lead, cadmium and chromium. Coloured clay-made toys are found to have high concentration of lead and chromium,’ Shahriar said.

Dhaka Children’s Hospital director Manzoor Hussain, also a paediatrician, said parents should be careful in purchasing toys for their kids though it might appear difficult to entirely avoid toy-related health.

‘Toys are important for children’s mental and physical development but toys often appear hazardous,’ Hussain warned.

He said every year scores of kids are treated in hospitals for toy-related injuries while under the long term impact of contaminated toys, children’s growth could be hampered and body organs could be exposed to troubles.

Leading ear, nose and throat expert Pran Gopal Dutta said toys causing too much noise could be a reason for children’s hearing impairment and weakened immune system.

‘Loud noise in toys can weaken the immune system and sleep disturbance of children… make sure a toy isn’t too loud for your child,’ said Dutta, a former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

Paediatricians said parents in advanced countries generally were conscious while buying toys ‘but here in our country that awareness is largely missing among most parents’.

The health experts, however, said besides creating awareness among parents on toy-related hazards, manufacturing companies should also be stopped from producing toys containing high toxin.

National Consumer Rights Protection directorate and consumers rights organisations can play significant roles in this regard.