The plastic and silicon ones can’t be recycled and they do not break down. Millions and millions of these little plastic bands are now on our earth. One mum in our chat group mentioned she found one in her baby’s nappy! As a result of their link to cancer, some phthalates have been banned in Europe.”Īs the kids are in close physical contact with the loom bands, wearing them around their wrists and may even suck or chew on them, you can see this starts to become a bit of a worry.

Nicole Bijlsma in her book Healthy Home, Healthy Family says that ‘phthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals that have gained considerable attention because of their impact on children’s hormones. The potential effects include “suspected endocrine, liver, kidney, reproductive, developmental, immuno and neurotoxicity wildlife and environmental toxicity linked to birth defects and damage to male reproductive systems. The Chemical Maze handbookgives them a sad face 🙁. Phthalates are used as a plasticisers or solvent. Some of the cheaper knock off plastic loom band products can contain phthalates.

Inevitably, it has also spawned a whole wave of cheap knock offs as well. Using a blunt crochet hook, some rubber bands and a plastic peg board, the loom kit was born and millions of them have been sold world wide. Rainbow Loom Bands are the creation of mechanical engineer, Cheong Choon Ng who developed them in 2011 while helping his daughter make a bracelet by hand. They are a fabulous non-screen activity for the kids that encourages hand eye co-ordination, creativity, problem solving and patience and gives mums some quiet time. I must admit I wasn’t on the ball that day and it dawned on me afterwards that these little plastic bands were indeed not so great for our health or the environment. Yes, my kids got sucked in and bought the kit and loads of little plastic bands as well. Loom Bands – A hazard to our health and the environment

Loom bands