MANILA, Philippines — “It’s again the time of the year when homes, schools, offices and everything else are adorned with things that add to the magic of Christmas,” the EcoWaste Coalition said on Monday.
But that note of Yuletide cheer, coming from an environmental group, comes with a caveat—the popular “parol,” that star-shaped, uniquely Filipino decor for Christmas, may contain harmful chemicals and other pollutants, as do other such decorations.
In a statement, EcoWaste said it found some parol containing the chemical element cadmium, which exceeded the 100 parts per million (ppm) limit set by the European Union for items made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic.
The group said it bought 55 items over the weekend, including the native lanterns, in shops in Manila’s Binondo and Tondo districts, Caloocan’s Monumento area and Quezon City’s Cubao district.
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EcoWaste then tested the items with an X-Ray Fluorescence analyzer for harmful chemicals. The yellow plastic parol purchased by EcoWaste had 207 ppm of cadmium, while the red lanterns had 171 ppm and the green ones had 137 ppm.
Other toxic elements
According to the group, the World Health Organization classifies cadmium as a carcinogen or cancer-causing agent, and may affect a person’s kidneys as well as the skeletal and respiratory systems.
EcoWaste national coordinator Aileen Lucero also warned that other Christmas decorations “may contain ingredients or components that pose a threat to our health as well as the environment.”
The group said it found a set of golden Christmas balls containing bromine at 17,780 ppm and two Christmas-inspired headbands with up to 970 ppm of the same toxic element.
The presence of bromine indicates that the items could be made of recycled plastic from electronic waste which contain brominated flame retardant chemicals (BFRs).
EcoWaste said BFRs could have negative impacts on the nervous system and have been linked to learning and memory problems, lower IQ, thyroid disruption and reduced fertility.
‘Glitters’
The group also found 13 of the assorted Christmas decorations it bought to be embellished with “glitters”—combined aluminum and plastic which, given their minute size, could easily travel through wastewater and contaminate oceans when thrown at sea.
Fish and other marine life could mistake the glitters for food and ingest them, EcoWaste said, as it urged consumers to instead choose items that do not contain such features.
EcoWaste also advised the public to buy parol made of plant-based materials such as bamboo, coconut husk or shell and palm leaves instead of PVC plastic, and go for Christmas ornaments made of fabric or indigenous materials.