The soft plastic problem, and who found it
A Danish environmental agency bought sex toys and put them in a laboratory.
In 2006 the Danish Environmental Protection Agency published a survey of the chemicals in sex toys bought on the ordinary market. Several of the soft PVC products tested contained phthalate softeners at high levels, along with substances nobody had declared. That survey is the reason the question gets asked at all in Europe.
What followed was regulation and a change of material. Phthalates are now restricted in consumer goods in the European Union, and serious makers moved to elastomers and silicone and say so on the box. A very cheap soft toy with no material named anywhere is the one where the question is still open.
What to do with it
Three things to check before buying: the material is named on the box or the listing, the seller is a real shop rather than a marketplace listing with no brand, and the thing does not smell strongly of plastic when it arrives.
A very cheap soft toy with none of the three is the one to send back. This is the one place in the category where price genuinely tracks safety.
What the material means for the body is on the guide's page about strokers and their materials.
