Why Some Vintage Barbies Could Be Hazardous to your Health | Dolls

Are you a bona fide doll collector and have a wonderful display of your treasures in your home?  Do you pride yourself on the vintage Barbies that share your living space?  Are you a regular at garage sales, estate sales, and any other place where collections of Barbie dolls may be found?  Do friends and family frequently see you rooting through old and gummy looking dolls, doll cases, and other paraphernalia in search for that hidden treasure that makes it all worth it?  If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then you may be putting your health in jeopardy. 

As a matter of fact there are quite a few news reports that have been circulated amongst serious doll collectors warning why some vintage Barbies could be hazardous to your health.  Take for example the old Barbie dolls that were made back in the late 1950s.  This was the beginning of the Barbie craze, and serious collectors will give their eyeteeth to obtain a doll from this time period.  Yet the toy manufacturers used a material known as polyvinyl chloride when they formed the dolls, and this material is not deteriorating at alarming rate.  This PVC is not the same we know and love today. Instead, it is full with materials that leach a highly toxic substance into its environment.  The name of the substance is DEHP, a plasticizer that was used to prevent the dolls from becoming brittle. This material is now banned by the European Union, because it was found to show links to developments of allergies, brain cancer, and skin diseases –such as scleroderma – and also cancers of the biliary duct and blood vessels.

How will you know if you have a Barbie doll that – while it may be the pride and joy of your collection – may present a serious health hazard to you and anyone else who may get in contact with it?  Here is a list of telltale signs:

Your Barbie is an older – or vintage – item.

Due to the deterioration of the plastic components, a sticky film is covering portions of the plastic surfaces.  Conversely, some of this may have oozed out of the doll and entered her clothing, thus contaminating them as well.

Your Barbie has some sticky spots, or slightly discolored spots, and the clothing on her may be stiff in places.

Which course of action to take, is another question altogether. While it is heartbreak for any collector, it is important to remember that nothing is as important as your well-being and the health of your family and loved ones. Those in the business of preserving dolls for large museums are working on ways to preserve them, even in the face of advanced deterioration, but this may not help the hobby collector.  You will probably want to take the doll off your display shelf and store is separately from any other dolls in a cool, dark place. This may temporarily slow down the deterioration.  Resist the urge the clean the doll, as this will put you in close contact with the harmful materials.

Additionally, do not store the dolls in a plastic bag or, as some have been suggestion, wrap her in cellophane. Instead, store her inside a cardboard box and lock it up away from the hands of children and other collectors. Similarly, some doll collectors have attempted to tame the tooth of time with the likes of talcum powder and even “Armor All”.  While the first is great for your skin and the latter really takes good care of your dash board, neither substance has proven itself as being the answer to Barbie doll collectors everywhere – they do not halt the destructive disease that these dolls seem to suffer from.

Contact your local doll museum for suggestions on how to deal with deteriorating dolls, and to see if they have found any methods of preserving their treasures.  For a fee, they may be able to treat the dolls of your collection as well.  No matter what you decide to do, please be sure to keep oozing dolls away from children! They are the most vulnerable to the chemicals in the dolls, and they may contract fatal diseases from exposure.