My son received the 80 piece Mega Bloks set as a Christmas gift from my Husbands parents. My side of the family is very aware of, and totally respectful of my wishes regarding made in the USA & (mostly) wooden play things for my family. I immediately assumed the Mega Bloks were going to be made in China, but was surprised to see they were made in Canada. OK, not terrible I thought, Canada has decent standards from what I know. My son dumped them out & within minutes of receiving the gift, Mega Bloks was suddenly part of his vocabulary, and Mega Bloks were suddenly all over our house.

I studied the bag for info on the Bloks. The bag boasts “PVC-free Eco-bag”. Cool. But, what about the blocks–the item my child will be playing with? So I wait for Christmas to get over & call their NA headquarters in Montreal, Canada. I get a recording that says to leave a message & they’ll call back, which I did. A week went by with no call back (I tried calling here & there only to receive the same “we’re busy, leave a message”). So I left my question on their FB page. Several days went by & they answered all messages around mine, but not mine, so I reposted it.

Q: What type of plastic are your blocks made of? Are they PVC & BPA-free? The bag advertises as PVC-free, but I find it odd that the info on the blocks is hard to come by, I see no info regarding it on your site, unless I’m missing it.

A: All Mega Bloks products meet United States and Canada Toy safety requirements for BPA and PVC. We do everything we can to keep them safe for kids of all ages.

Q: My question is whether they are PVC &/or BPA-free. I’m not familiar enough with the safety standards, but know that they may have an allowable limit, which is different than containing none

A: Our toys adhere to US toy safety standards and we are proud to enforce higher internal safety thresholds than required by the standards, but we cannot confirm that the blocks do not include trace amounts of PVC. We assure you that our toys are safe for our families and yours.

(It took me 3 posts to get to the bottom of it, here’s the ultimate answer: https://www.facebook.com/megabloks/posts/10152153976931703?comment_id=32101605&offset=0&total_comments=1&notif_t=feed_comment)

A different post on the same topic shared on my FB wall, and here's what they say: "PVC is not banned in toys and some of our toys may contain PVC."  https://www.facebook.com/megabloks/posts/10151568026906703

What ticks me off the most? That they “assure” they are safe, although they cannot even confirm what is, or isn’t in them, which is completely ridiculous! No words can convey my frustration with that! WHY would they advertise the bag as PVC-free, when the blocks themselves contain them? To gloss over that fact… To create a smoking mirror… This frustrates me to NO end. I know that in the post or 2 I’ve done about this to date, while trying to get to the bottom of it, many parents have expressed frustration- they fell for the “PVC-free bag”, and assumed the same of the blocks. I’ve learned it’s never safe to assume anything, but feel their marketing ploy on this one is very deceptive! I've seen numerous messages on pages this has been shared with reflecting the same sentiment: "I thought they were free of those chemicals because of what it says on the bag".

SO, what we're asking of you, Marc Bertrand:

1.  Remove the advertising for the PVC-free bag. By advertising this fact, you're acknowledging that this is a characteristic that parents want, and it leads many to falsely assume the product in the bag is similarly PVC-free.

2. Include in writing on the bag, the fact that you cannot confirm that the blocks do not include trace amounts of PVC. It's the responsible thing for a huge, multi-national company marketing their product to very young children to do. How can we, as parents, make informed decisions when we do not have the necessary information to do so?

3. Ultimately, removing the PVC from your toys is the responsible thing to do, and many parents would gladly pay more for such a product. Why should any child be subjected to harmful chemicals when there are suitable alternatives? I hope you'll please consider adequate, accurate labeling of your product in the meantime, while you work very hard on a PVC-free alternative!

Sources regarding concerns related to PVC:

http://healthychild.org/easy-steps/reduce-your-use-of-pvc-in-plastics-and-other-household-products/

“Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or vinyl, is one of the most environmentally hazardous consumer materials ever produced.” http://chej.org/…/documents/PVC_Consumer_Products.pdf​

http://www.healthystuff.org/chemicals.chlorine.php

A good resource with safe alternatives: http://www.safbaby.com/lead-free-pvc-free-and-fire-retardant-free-toy-manufacturers

My safe toy list: http://ecofriendlyusa.wordpress.com/made-in-usa-2/toy-list/