Watch out for toxic sex toys ! In fact, many cheap sex toys contain potentially dangerous substances.
This is particularly the case for sex toys made of “jelly”, the name given to pretty much any soft, translucent plastic used for sex toys, whatever its composition. But also certain materials with patented names, whose names tell us little about what they contain.
Toxic sex toys in a jar
A while ago, the US shop The Smitten Kitten, part of an association called CATT, standing for “Coalition Against Toxic Toys” (“Coalition against toxic sex toys”) decided to fill a glass jar with sex toys made of jelly, to seal it airtight, and simply wait, just to see how these suspicious erotic accessories behaved once left to their own devices.
The result, which can be seen on their Tumblr, is quite worrying. And for good reason, the sex toys have melted together. And at the bottom of the jar, bizarre chunks float in a translucent juice that seems to have come from nowhere. In fact, this liquid is the product of the chemical reaction that takes place over time in a sex toy containing phthalates or mineral oils. Phthalates, and/or other substances, rise to the surface and, little by little, the sex toy breaks down.
The Smitten Kitten’s “Toxic Toys jar”. The translucent aspect of jelly sex toys can be tempting (as long as you’re not holding them under your nose… Their smell is off-putting), seen from this angle, they are far less appetising.
The jar, properly sealed, prevents the toxic sex toys’ nasties from evaporating. And storing them one against the other accelerates the process. I’ve already told you about fighting sex toys and shown the outcome of one of these tragic battles.
But even without experimenting, you can see with the naked eye that dodgy stuff is leaking out of objects that are supposed to end up pressed intimately against your mucous membranes. In fact, some jelly sex toys are plainly oozing. A sex toy is not supposed to sweat.
Unless you call your human partner a “sex toy”. In that case, you needn’t worry too much about their chemical composition.
The jar seen from below: it’s just as unappetising.
Recently, The Smitten Kitten has set about soaking a new jar of dubious sex toys (the previous one, having become too frightening, ended up in the bin). Here is a video of its preparation:
Photos showing the evolution of the contents of the jar can be “contemplated” on their Tumblr.
This experiment clearly shows that jelly contains substances that leak out all by themselves over time… But what, exactly?
Several associations have commissioned independent laboratories to analyse sex toys with a suspicious smell… And the test results revealed some unappetising surprises…
Tests: toxic sex toys
In 2006, The Smitten Kitten had several dodgy sex toys tested. The lab results are available on the project website. Badvibes. In the same year, a test commissioned by Greenpeace also revealed staggering amounts of phthalates (I’ve already told you about it there) in various “jelly” sex toys and other soft plastics.
Among these results, what shocked me was not the presence of phthalates in several sex toys, in itself, but… the quantities. Some of the sex toys tested contain between 30% and 60% phthalates ! And in some cases, it is DEHP, one of the most dangerous phthalates… Meanwhile, when it comes to human exposure to phthalates, the dose is expressed in micrograms. In short: highly toxic sex toys!
Of course, you’re not planning to nibble a ham-and-sex-toy sandwich at tea time, but if you consider the material the object will off-gas over the course of use, what quantity does that amount to? It’s hard to answer that question.
The phthalates are additives that make it possible to cheaply turn rigid plastic into soft plastic. They are harmful to health, with various consequences: hormonal disruption, reduced fertility, adverse effects on the liver and kidneys, foetal malformations, etc. They are also suspected of being carcinogenic.
Other additives intended for the same purpose, such as certain mineral oils, are also toxic.
The substances mentioned in these reports have been banned (limited to 0.1%) in children’s toys in the EU since 2006, and DEHP will be completely banned by the end of 2015.
These two sets of tests are a little outdated. We can therefore hope that some progress has been made since then.
… And lies
Let us now look at a more recent example of toxic sex toys.
In 2013, the independent site Dildology had the “James Deen : Realistic® Cock” dildo from the Doc Johnson brand tested; it is made from a patented material called “Doc Johnson’s Realistic® (or R5). On the manufacturer’s website, the product presentation page states: “Non-Phthalate PVC with Antibacterial Sil-A-Gel”.
The result of the analysis, performed by the laboratory ECA, indicates that the sextoy is made up of 38.9% PVC and 61.1% of a plasticiser called “bis(2-ethylhexylhexahydrophthalate)”. This dildo was therefore awarded a seal indicating its failure in the Dildology test.
Following the publication of these data, Doc Johnson posted a response on his blog, which Dildology republished under the analysis report.
Translation of an excerpt from this response:
Personally, I admit that my knowledge of chemistry is rather slim. But Google being an expert in pretty much anything, we will turn to it for clarification.
First of all, at the molecular level, what is a phthalate ? Wikipedia’s answer: “phthalates are a group of chemicals derived from phthalic acid” :
What about the substances mentioned?
- DEHhP, or bis(2-ethylhexylhexahydrophthalate), has the molecular formula C24H44O4.
- DEHP, or bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, has the molecular formula C24H38O4.
Below: on the left, DEHhP; on the right, DEHP:
DEHhP, found in the analysed dildo, and DEHP are two different molecules (DEHhP has 6 extra hydrogen atoms, distributed across the central hexagon).
But as its name might have suggested, DEHhP is indeed a phthalate.
In short, the dildo “James Deen : Realistic® Cock” does not actually contain any DEHP, as Doc Johnson clarifies in its response to Dildology. At the same time, no one ever said that it did. But it does indeed contain phthalates. So the product description lies.
The most worrying thing about all this is that if this sort of fudge can happen with a brand that isn’t all that dodgy, it probably isn’t the only one fiddling with descriptions. Doc Johnson has a wide range of pure silicone sex toys, the “Platinum” range, which seems to inspire confidence in those who have seen them up close. Moreover, it manufactures its sex toys in the United States, and so probably has to undergo checks from time to time. In short: it is probably not the worst.
If a sex toy smells very bad, produces greasy deposits or changes in appearance on its own over time, beware… And even if it is labelled “phthalate-free”!
