Foam Playmats-Recent Health Warning

[fromscratch]

I am just wondering when these foam/plastic type mats that your talking about became so popular.

My eldest is almost 13 (makes me feel so old) and he played on a quilt and lambs wool rug. So I'm just curious I guess. Then we had dd 6 and I just did the same thing, I guess the mats are a new phenominon or I was shopping with my eyes shut. Which is so me, shopping with my eyes shut I mean.
My bff has them in her play room for her toddlers so I'll let her know. Thanks for this thread.

[Miss.B]

Squidipa, I've been keeping my eye on this one for a while, here is the latest :

KIDSAFE VIC NOTICE: FOAM MATS


Kidsafe Vic has alerted both State and Federal agencies responsible for product safety that some Foam Mats had been withdrawn in Belgium and France.

The status of the situation is as follows:
•This is precautionary advice to alert the public.
•Parents are advised not to panic, but instead to contact their supplier, requesting evidence in writing that their mats have been tested for formamides and detailing these results.
•Until this is known, Kidsafe recommends you put the mats away from your children.
•Formamides have not yet been tested for in any products in Australia as far as we know, but the regulatory authorities will be doing this shortly, if not already.

We have every confidence the regulatory authorities will keep the public informed.

The foam mats sold in Kmart are definitely the ones in question as they are made in China and mine stank so I assume it was full of the nasties. My mat has been long gone.

[buliej]

Clark's rubber (google) has a product called "natural rubber" - I wonder what this is? Sofie the Giraffe is made of "natural rubber" which is safe - but I can't imagine it's one and the same in terms of composition. Actually, I just googled "natural rubber" - if the Clark's version is truly this, it should be just as safe as Sofie which is awesome - assuming it's not corrupted with chemicals during the manufacturing process. I'm not convinced yet though - I may ring them on Monday because we need to put down some rubber mats for when DS starts crawling/climbing.