IPhone Headphone Cables Toxic, May Violate California Law
Apple iPhone headphone cables contain four dangerous paint chemicals banned by the EU from toys and other children’s goods, Greenpeace said in a report Monday. Europe classifies the two most abundant PVC phthalates found as “toxic to reproduction” due to their ability to “interfere with sexual development in mammals, especially in males,” Greenpeace said. The other two chemicals are similarly banned, but only in toys that children might put in their mouths. After the report’s release, the California Center for Environmental Health took legal action against Apple, claiming violation of a state law.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
In June, Greenpeace bought an iPhone in Washington, D.C., and sent it to U.K. labs for analysis, Greenpeace said. The lab tested the device for substances regulated under the EU’s reduction of hazardous substances directive, which restricts the use of lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and certain brominated flame retardants in electrical and electronic goods, it said. Additional tests looked at PVC and the toxic phthalate plasticizers it often contains, it said. The RoHS directive doesn’t ban PVC or phthalates, but the EU does ban the use of many phthalates in toys.
The iPhone passed all RoHS tests, but Greenpeace found a high level of chlorine in the white headphone cable, indicating that the casing could be made from PVC, it said. Greenpeace analyzed the cable further and found “high concentrations” of phthalate esters commonly used as plasticizers in flexible PVC, it said. The phthalate levels, comprising 1.5 percent of the cables’ plastic coating, are similar but “higher overall” than those Greenpeace previously found in iPod headphone cables, it said.
All Apple products comply with RoHS, a company spokesman said. He also reiterated an Apple promise from May that the company would voluntarily remove PVC and brominated flame retardants from all products before 2009. Apple should have started with the iPhone, launched a month after Apple’s statement, Greenpeace said. “Steve Jobs has missed the call on making the iPhone his first step towards greening Apple’s products,” said Zeina Alhajj, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner.
The Greenpeace finding could mean that Apple is violating California’s Proposition 65 law, which requires warning labels for products that can “expose consumers to phthalates or other chemicals that are reproductive toxins or carcinogens,” the California Center for Environmental Health said. The center sent Apple a violation notice Monday. Apple must respond in 60 days. Though the law requires only warnings, the center has historically worked with companies to reduce toxic chemicals in violating products, said its research director, Caroline Cox. Executive Director Michael Green concurred: “We expect Apple to reformulate their products to make them safer from cradle to grave, so they don’t pose a threat to consumers, workers or the environment.”
The center will file a citizen enforcement lawsuit against Apple unless it agrees to recall products already sold, provide warnings for or reduce chemicals in future iPhones, and pay an “appropriate civil penalty,” the violation notice said. An Apple spokesman to declined comment, saying the company doesn’t talk publicly about legal disputes.
If Apple cooperates with the center, it would probably apply any iPhone changes across the entire product line, Cox said, citing past center dealings with companies violating the state law. Shipping a more health- and environment- friendly iPhone to California only wouldn’t make business sense, she added.
Apple is set to ship the iPhone in Europe next month. “Apple should sell a version which is at least as green as the offerings from Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola,” Greenpeace said.