Endocrine disruptive chemicals (EDCs) are found in many everyday products and can cause adverse effects on human health. Small children are particularly sensitive to EDCs and they are also exposed to them in a greater extent than adults. Despite this, EDCs are only banned in a few toys and childcare products. There are many sources of exposure and if no steps are taken to reduce the incidence of EDCs we may face an increasing number of people diagnosed with obesity, diabetes type 2 or various types of cancer. The Swedish Government has set a number of environmental objectives, one of which is called a non-toxic environment. The Swedish Chemicals Agency was instructed to produce and conduct a national action plan to achieve this goal. According to the Swedish Government this objective will not be achieved on time. Other legislation that regulates EDCs needs to be improved in order to make sure that there are no adverse effects on children’s health. This report consists of a literature review and a questionnaire study. The questionnaire study examined what the parents of small children knew about EDCs and their effects on children. The results show that knowledge amongst parents is poor when it comes to children’s exposure to EDCs. The majority of the parents lack the information necessary to select toys and childcare products without EDCs for their children. They also trust that toys and childcare products sold in Sweden are safe to use. Most EDCs are not banned in toys and childcare products and because of that the consumer has to take more responsibility when choosing what products to buy. If the consumer, in this case the parent, doesn’t have enough knowledge about EDCs to make an informed decision it can cause problems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hh-23803 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Eggert, Caroline |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för ekonomi och teknik (SET) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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