According to Mark Schapiro in his book "Exposed" we allow pthalates in soft plastic toys while Europe bans it, and the science they used to determine the danger was done by our EPA. US scientists testified to the European parliament.

Remember when we were embarrassed to learn that even though we banned some pesticides here we allowed them to be exported? Now we're the third world.

As it turns out, there is no downside to substituting other softeners for pthalates. China makes toys that don't use pthalates, for European markets, at no higher cost, and makes them with pthalates for the US market. That's your government, hard at work doing nothing.

Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power