Beware! A pen contains ten kinds of poisons. Your children may also be using it...

This article was reviewed by Chu Yuhao, PhD from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, engineer at Sinopec Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry

At the beginning of the school year, stationery sales enter their peak season, and diversified stationery becomes the new favorite of primary and secondary school students.

Many children's stationery products are very beautifully made, with good color, fragrance and taste.

There are news reports that ten types of poisons were detected in stationery commonly used by students.

Through investigation by media reporters, it was found that some "high-value stationery" are hidden with high risks and can easily cause harm to children's physical health.

The Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences once disassembled the components of four brands of scented highlighters that are popular among primary and secondary school students on the market and tested and analyzed them one by one. It was found that the volatile odor came from the ink in the highlighters. A total of 15 volatile components were detected, 10 of which were toxic substances, including the highly toxic substance acrylonitrile.

Studies have shown that long-term inhalation of acrylonitrile can cause symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, headache, and fatigue.

Every child cannot do without stationery such as pencil sharpeners, pens, exercise books, etc. Parents should also be careful when choosing stationery for their children.

But in fact, "toxic stationery" is nothing new. In 2014, CCTV's 3.15 Gala revealed that the correction fluid used by students contained harmful substances that affected their health.

Upon testing, it was found that the toluene and xylene levels in the tampered products exceeded the standard.

These testing products come from online e-commerce platforms, supermarkets of all sizes, and even stationery stores near schools.

Today, I will take parents to take stock of the stationery on the market that has "toxic" potentials. Don't buy them for your children!

Plastic book cover/plastic book bag:

Plasticizers may exceed the limit

Many parents will buy plastic book covers for their children, which are beautiful, flat and easy to wrap.

But are neat-looking plastic book covers really safe?

It is understood that a father named Wei from Hangzhou was once a victim of book cover wrapping.

At the beginning of the school year, he discovered that the plastic book covers he bought for his daughter had a strong and pungent smell. As a safety monitor, he realized that these book covers might have quality problems. So he paid out of his own pocket to send the seven book covers he bought to the Jiangsu Provincial Chemical Quality Inspection Center for monitoring. The results were shocking:

All products have excessive levels of PAHs and phthalates!

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are carcinogens, and phthalates, commonly known as plasticizers, are similar to estrogen in the human body, can interfere with endocrine system, and may also cause precocious puberty in children.

These two substances are carcinogenic to humans mainly through direct contact with breathing or skin. If children are not careful and put stationery containing phthalates into their mouths, it will damage the liver and kidneys over time.

The book covers sent for inspection are of different brands. According to Wei's father, some were purchased from a nearby stationery store, and some were purchased online. They all look relatively formal in appearance, but they lack production date, manufacturer and production address. They are typical "three-no" products.

▲Test results, from Hangzhou News Network

Selection suggestion:

⒈Try to wrap the book covers yourself, such as using environmentally friendly kraft paper, calendar paper, ordinary wrapping paper, etc.

⒉ If you want to buy plastic book covers, please buy products without pungent odors and produced by regular manufacturers, and pay attention to whether there are instructions for use in Chinese. You can buy those with the raw materials marked as polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), but do not buy PVC plastic or those without the raw materials marked.

⒊ How to identify genuine products from counterfeit products: Materials produced by regular manufacturers are flat, clean, have good light transmittance, no odor and good toughness. Counterfeit products are generally colored, easy to tear, have poor light transmittance, and some products have pungent odors. They usually do not have the factory name, address, implementation standards, or contact information.

⒋ Good hygiene habits: When reading a book, avoid sucking your fingers that have touched the book cover with your mouth, and do not touch the book cover directly with your mouth. Develop the habit of washing your hands before eating after reading.

Colorful toxic scented erasers

The colorful erasers on the market have attracted the attention of many children. Erasers with beautiful shapes and fragrance are especially popular among children!

However, according to the test results of the Quality Supervision Bureau, many erasers sold on the market were found to contain excessive amounts of phthalate plasticizers. Plasticizers are actually additives for polymer materials. During the processing of plastic raw materials, adding such plasticizers can easily make them softer and easier to process.

Experts said that my country has clearly stipulated the quality requirements for phthalate plasticizers in eraser products in the "General Safety Requirements for Student Supplies". However, many school supplies on the market, including erasers, have excessive amounts of plasticizers.

Excessive plasticizers can affect the human hormone system, and long-term exposure may lead to precocious puberty.

The 2016 Student Supplies (Erasers) Product Quality Safety Risk Monitoring and Analysis Report shows:

Among the 40 batches of erasers sampled, this plasticizer was detected in 37 batches.

In order to make erasers softer, easier to color and more fragrant, unscrupulous manufacturers will add excessive amounts of these poisons.

Recommended options:

⒈Never buy products without any warranty.

⒉ Try to buy erasers without any special smell. The stronger the smell, the less reliable it is.

Scented ballpoint pen:

May cause chronic benzene poisoning

Some children bought scented ballpoint pens in supermarkets and stationery stores. Parents noticed that when their children were doing homework in the room, there was a pungent smell.

For a period of time afterwards, the child often complained of nausea and even his appetite decreased. At first, the parents thought that the child had gastrointestinal discomfort, so they gave him some pills and didn't take it seriously.

As a result, one time the child fainted while doing homework and was rushed to the hospital, where we were told that the child was suffering from chronic benzene poisoning.

The culprit is the essence and inferior chemical fragrances in some scented stationery. These fragrances contain benzene and formaldehyde. Why does ballpoint pens contain benzene?

The reason is that some unscrupulous manufacturers, in order to prevent the oily refills of ballpoint pens from smudging and writing smoothly, actually add benzene as a solvent. Long-term use of such scented stationery can cause chronic benzene poisoning in children, causing damage to hematopoiesis and immune function, and may even cause leukemia.

Purchase reminder:

⒈ Go to a regular stationery store or supermarket to buy ballpoint pens to avoid buying low-quality products without any quality assurance.

⒉Try not to choose pens with peculiar smell.

Exercise books: The paper should not be too white

Fluorescent brighteners can improve the whiteness of paper. In order to make their paper products brighter and more beautiful, companies often add a certain amount of fluorescent brighteners.

However, when students use workbooks for a long time, the skin of their hands often comes into contact with the notebook paper. If fluorescent brighteners are present, they may migrate into the students' bodies and be harmful to their health.

Since workbooks are used every day, students stare at high-whiteness paper for a long time, which may have an adverse effect on their vision health in the long run.

Purchase reminder:

⒈ Choose workbooks with inner paper that is not too white and has soft tones.

⒉ Choose workbooks with good printing quality, with clear and complete cover patterns and text and inner printing lines, not skewed, and without broken lines, torn pages, blank pages, or dirty printing.

Colored pencils: Don’t let your child chew them

Many children have the habit of biting pencils. You should know that most pencils have a layer of paint on the surface, which contains metallic lead.

Moreover, the preservatives used by some manufacturers in the wood processing process may also contain other metal toxins such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. In particular, some low-quality pencils produced by unlicensed small workshops have higher lead content.

Lead poisoning can significantly impair children's memory and attention, and gradually harm their physical and intellectual development.

Oil pastels and watercolor pens are also indispensable in art classes. Remember to wash your hands after using them to avoid ingesting heavy metals in the paint when eating.

The same goes for the highlighters used to mark textbooks. If you put these things in your mouth, they can be harmful to your health.

Purchase reminder:

⒈ Choose products from regular manufacturers.

⒉ Be sure to correct children’s bad habit of biting pens.

Correction fluid: has a pungent odor

When the correction fluid is opened, a pungent smell will hit the nose, and this pungent smell will cause long-term chronic harm to the child's liver, kidneys, etc. As the correction fluid evaporates, toxic substances such as chloroform, dichloromethane, and benzene can be absorbed by the human body through the respiratory tract, causing headaches, nausea, inflammation of the eyes, nose, and throat in mild cases, and even damage to the nervous system in severe cases.

Purchase reminder:

⒈Try not to use or use less. It is recommended to use an eraser or correction stickers. If correction fluid gets on your skin, be sure to wash it off immediately.

⒉ Formal exams such as the middle school entrance exam and the college entrance exam do not allow the use of correction fluid, so it is better to let the children adapt to it earlier.

Be careful when buying stationery

These are items that children come into contact with every day. Therefore, parents must not take it lightly and must be cautious when purchasing stationery.

1. Don’t buy products without any warranty

Be sure to choose products from regular manufacturers, and never buy products without any certification from roadside shops just because you want to save money.

2. Don’t choose stationery with strong fragrance

Scented stationery often contains harmful substances such as benzene and formaldehyde. The more fragrant it looks, the more vicious it is inside.

3. Don’t buy stationery that looks too good

The more beautiful the stationery is, the more chemical agents it contains, and the greater the harm it will naturally cause to children.

4. Develop good hygiene habits

Correct children's habit of chewing stationery, wash hands promptly after using stationery, and avoid studying while eating to prevent poison from entering the body through the mouth.

Source: Xinhua News Agency, Sunflower Class Parents Committee