This is huge news! Last year my article and podcast about unsafe sex toys got a lot of positive attention, and since then there have been more articles and studies about unsafe chemicals in sex toys — particularly phthalates, and those “jelly rubber” toys. I also listed the issue as one of the top ten sex stories of 2006 in my Chronicle column. Now it looks like one of the biggest mainstream sex toy retailers in the business Adam & Eve have decided that indeed customer health is important, and have officially decided to gradually stop carrying sex toys that have phthalates in them. Libby Lynn from Adam and Eve writes me this morning saying,

“PHE/A&E is currently cutting out all sex toys that contain phthalates. This process takes time because a large majority of the products we sell come from China. However, the merchandisers are requiring that all toys be phthalate-free. By mid 2007, PHE companies (Adam & Eve, Better Sex, AdamMale, VideoMail, Video Gold, Temptations Parties, etc) should also be phthalate-free. I am keeping my eye on this as much as I can.”

Kudos to Adam and Eve (and owner Phil Harvey) for taking this bold step in the mainstream toy industry, where typically distributors could give a rat’s ass about the safety and sexual health of their customers. Now we just need to give them a bigger push to stop carrying numbing creams (like Anal Eze) and shrink creams (containing alum). I want to actively pursue this: if you have any information, horror stories, suggestions or relevant links about the evils of Anal Eze and China Shrink Cream, email me — violet at tinynibbles dot com

Update, blog comment: Cory Silverberg at About.com- Sexuality links to this and writes, “This is huge news, as Adam & Eve (and their parent company PHE) carry considerably more weight in the industry than the smaller sex shops that have long complained about phthalates in sex toys, and could be a catalyst for the major manufacturers to turn away from phthalates as well. In addition to their vast mail order empire Adam & Eve has been aggressively trying to expand their franchise operations.

Of course the best laid plans don’t always end well, and we’ll have to wait and see if these good wishes come to fruition. The number of times I’ve read ‘latex free’ and ‘ethically manufactured’ on packaging and marketing material from companies where neither claim were even remotely true, is staggering.”

Update, reader comment:

“I had a horrible experience with those god awful numbing creams once. My girlfriend at the time bought a thing of Anal Eaze and I told her OK, we can try it.

After about a minute I got pins and needles throughout my entire penis, which then extended into my entire groin area. Eventually it went completely numb. Lasted for about 3 hours. I was actually five minutes away from going to the ER because I swear I thought my penis was going to fall off. She felt similar sensations but not as bad or distressing.

Afterwards I went online and looked around for info on what the hell could have caused that, and while I never got an answer and have since heard a similar horror story from a friends who tried the Extended Pleasure condoms and had a similar experience with thinking their penises were a few seconds away from dropping off…”