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No threat from Baby Diapers – No Reason for Customer Concern
The Hague, 5/18/00. Recent press releases, that certain baby diapers are dangerous, because of detected trace levels of Tributyltin (TBT) are incorrect and factually and scientifically unfounded.
Dr. Ulrich Stewen, Vice Chairman of the Organotin Environmental Programe Association, the global association of the organotin manufacturers, clearly rejects a health risk: Nobody in Germany applies TBT consciously to diapers or textiles! Other related claims are also wrong. The detected TBT concentrations are in the parts per billion range and originate from unavoidable technical impurities from the production process. These trace levels do not pose any health risks.
This statement is supported by various European governmental authorities, for example the Bundesinstitut für gesundheitlichen Verbraucherschutz und Veterinärmedizin (BgVV), which does not see any risks to adults or babies from the study results reported by Greenpeace. Recently, the BgVV has published a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of TBT and other organotin compounds in all kinds of consumer goods. A risk to human health from these consumer goods has been excluded. (The study is available under the BgVV homepage www.bgvv.de )
Questionable arguments have been used recently by a small number of environmentalist organizations to attempt to discredit all organotin compounds through emotional, non-science-based arguments, having the result of scaring the general public needlessly. The same strategy always appears to be followed: New products are analyzed and trace levels of TBT, often close to the analytical detection limit, are being found. What is being withheld, is the fact, that the sole detection of trace levels is no evidence at all for a potential hazard or risk. It is urgent now, that these misleading arguments are stopped and that, instead, a fact-based discussion about TBT continues! It is ORTEPA‘s opinion, that there is no reason to use TBT as a biocide in consumer products, but, a rigorous ban of all non-consumer, industrial TBT applications is neither useful nor ecologically necessary!
More detailed information is available on the ORTEPA Home Page: www.ortepa.org or contact: Dr.Ulrich Stewen, Vice Chairman ORTEPA, Phone 001 914 593 4045
or Dr. Roland Stangl, ORTEPA, Phone 02307 65 2510.