Survey and health assesment of chemicals substances in sex toys

Overview

Nilsson et al. screened 16 sex-toy and fetish-clothing products for elements and organic chemicals for the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. The HMI-relevant findings are total-content ICP-MS results for metals in finished product material, a confirmed cadmium value in one hard-plastic dildo, and trimethyltin chloride in one soft-vinyl dildo with a follow-up artificial-sweat migration result. Tin and trimethyltin are kept separate: the ICP-MS table reports total elemental tin, while the GC-MS work identifies one volatile organotin species.

Key numbers

The purchased set included 16 products: 11 vibrator/dildo-type products, one artificial vagina, one gag, one transparent bra top, one fetish mini dress, and one pair of fetish gloves. Materials included soft vinyl, natural latex/rubber, thermoplastic rubber/SEBS, and hard plastics.

Table 4.2 reports element screening in mg/kg for each product material. HMI-relevant maxima from the 16-product table were:

The narrative following Table 4.2 states that sample 16, described in Table 3.1 as a hard-plastic dildo, had 200 ppm cadmium in screening and that a subsequent double-determination quantitative analysis showed 218 ppm with relative uncertainty 1.4 %. The same paragraph states that this concentration exceeded the Danish cadmium-content limit cited by the report.

For tin, the source states that samples 1 and 2 had relatively high tin content and that sample 11 had lower tin content. Section 5.1.1 describes tin of 250 and 310 ppm in samples 1 and 2, then restates the Table 4.2 values as 260 ppm and 310 ppm; this page uses Table 4.2’s 260 and 310 values and records the source-side wording discrepancy.

Trimethyltin chloride (CAS 1066-45-1) was identified only in sample 2. Table 4.6, headed g/kg sample, gives trimethyltin chloride 0.04 for sample 2; Table 7.15 expresses the same extraction result as 0.04 under Dichloromethane (mg/g). Section 7.3.9.2 instead says 0.04mg/kg, so the extraction-unit label is internally inconsistent in the source. The migration experiment is clearer: Table 6.1 reports trimethyltin chloride migration from sample 2 of 99 µg per dm2 after 1 hour exposure in artificial sweat at pH 4,5.

Methods (brief)

The Danish EPA project purchased products to cover rubber, vinyl, fetish clothing, China-origin and non-China-origin products, and high-interest products on the Danish market. All materials underwent ICP-MS element screening after microwave-assisted digestion of about 250 mg sample in 5 ml 14 M HNO3, followed by dilution to 25 ml; the report used a Perkin-Elmer Sciex Elan 6100 DRC Plus ICP mass spectrometer with TotalQuantIII screening. The report notes that arsenic could only be identified in rubber products because arsenic was obscured by the dominant chlorine peak from vinyl. Follow-up organic screening used GC-MS after dichloromethane extraction, and migration testing used artificial sweat, artificial saliva, or other simulants for 1 hour at 40 °C.

Implications

Microbiome: Not applicable.

Related evidence

• Other menstrual/intimate products (case-by-case)
• Cadmium
• Tin
• Organotins
• Lead
• Nickel
• Chromium
• Arsenic, Total
• Antimony
• Aluminum
• Zinc

Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git.