21 November 2010 — As the holiday season fast approaches, it is good to be reminded how much plastic is given and received, and especially destined for children and babies. Because babies tend to put everything into their mouth at the beginning of their life-long world discovery process, it is particularly important to select toys that are not toxic. All plastics contain synthetic chemicals. There is no such thing as a pure plastic without any additives. As Dr. Arlene Blum (http://arleneblum.com) explained to us during her TEDxGPGP presentation on 6 November 2010, some plastics contain up to 100 different chemicals, from flame retardants to toxic colours.  Keeping this in mind, it is particularly important not to offer plastic toys to babies. Their developing bodies and brains are so vulnerable, and their innate habit of putting everything in the mouth brings plastic residues into the little body fast and directly.

To illustrate how often babies put objects into their mouths, take a look at this time lapse video, which lasts 2 minutes but covers a period of 4 hours during which a baby was filmed playing in his environment (interaction with the parents was edited out). Try and count how many times the baby puts the plastic objects that surround him in his mouth. Astonishing!