The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) final rule expanding phthalate restrictions in children’s toys and child care articles takes effect this week, on April 25, 2018.  The rule renews the ban on DEHP, DBP and BBP, makes the interim ban on DINP permanent, and adds four new phthalates to the list of banned phthalates in children’s products.

Phthalates are a group of chemicals typically used to soften vinyl and other plastics and make them pliable and easier to grip and are found in numerous household products.   The final rule comes nearly a decade after CPSC first began to regulate phthalates over concerns that phthalates can act as endocrine disruptors.

To recap, in 2008, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), which prohibited toys and child care items containing the following three phthalates:

• di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP);
• dibutyl phthalate (DBP); and
• butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) .

The CPSIA