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'Loom bands are the big craze at the moment and they are flooding into the country from all over the world. 'The worrying thing is the charms are the bits that are most likely to end up in children's mouths. 'We rely on manufacturers coming to us to get their products tested and many of the major retailers will only agree to stock products that are certified by our laboratories. 'It's not to say every packet of loom bands out there is affected but there are plenty of products on the market that could be dangerous. Loom bands have soared in popularity in recent months and have been sported by the likes of Prince William 'Out of the 16 packets we tested every single charm failed because of the high levels of phthalates in them.
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Marion Wilson, from the Birmingham Assay Office, said: 'The problem we found was not with the bands but with the charms that are sold with them. They can migrate from plastic into the body if it comes into contact with saliva or sweat. Phthalates are used as a softener in PVC and can be found on textiles, coated leather and more commonly plastic-type articles. It provides importers and retailers with test reports confirming whether a product has passed or failed. The Birmingham Assay Office, an independent company which tests the safety of toys, carried out the investigation. Importers and retailers are also being encouraged to send their loom band charms to them for testing if they haven't already done so. Safety officials are now urging parents to be vigilant when buying loom bands and charms, with the advice to only buy packets with the 'CE' safety mark from reputable retailers. The batches they came from could not be issued with safety certificates which meant they could not be distributed to high street stores. They had either been sent for testing by responsible import companies or intercepted by Trading Standards on their way to high street shops.Īll of the 16 packets of charms tested contained more than the accepted 0.1 per cent level - with two having more than 50 per cent.