During the past year there has been a flurry of activity worldwide looking into the safety of using products such as plastisol screen printing inks which contain certain phthalates. Many PVC plastics made with phthalates face sales restrictions or bans in Europe since December 1999. The US Consumer Products Safety Commission proposed a ban in December 1998 on the sale of some products which contain PVC. Both the US and European directives apply to the sale of toys for children under age three (Europe) or five (US) who could ingest phthalates through sucking on the product. Textile articles are not included.

Studies in the US have shown that one phthalate, DINP puts few, if any, children at risk for liver or other organ toxicity from suckable products. A Health Canada study in 1998, however, did associate a significant risk with DINP, but did not find any children's products containing DINP. An additional concern has been raised over the use of phthalates and other plasticizers, oestrogen mimicing. The chemical industry has been and continues to research the health effects of phthalates. One such US study of phthalates esters in November of 1999 found that exposures were "hundreds to thousands of times less than those identified as causing effects in animals".

There is another issue at the end of the product's life. Attempts to recycle PVC plastics have proven difficult. If the item is burned, the chlorine in PVCs can be transformed into dioxins, a persistent bioaccumulative toxin.