Ian Jackson

Heads up | Brenda Kerber, owner of the Traveling Tickle Trunk, shows off her phthalate-free sex toys.

If you buy an adult novelty to spice up your sex life, you’d expect a red face to be the most serious side effect of your purchase — but you could be mistaken.

Lower-end adult novelty items are often made of products that contain BPA and phthalates, ingredients that have been banned in other products like food packaging and children’s toys.

Phthalates are also one of a number of “specific environmental contaminants” listed on the Canadian Cancer Society’s website, which states that the group is “concerned about the long-term health effects where exposure to high levels [of phthalates] may occur.”

The amount of phthalates found in adult toys varies, but a 2006 study commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands tested eight different sex toys, and found that seven of them contained phthalates “in concentrations varying from 24 to 51 per cent.” 

Brenda Kerber, the owner and operator of The Traveling Tickle Trunk on Whyte Avenue, hasn’t completely made up her mind about phthalates yet, but she does recognize them as a concern — especially for women, on account of the absorbent tissue in the vagina.

Kerber began her career as a sex educator before shifting gears into the world of adult toy parties. It was as a party hostess that she started to learn more about what actually goes into the making of adult toys. At the start of her career, selling sex toys with another company, she noticed that not all the toys stayed clean, and some were very flimsy. “I just started doing my own research,” Kerber says, “and started to understand there was big difference between what products are made of.”

And phthalates aren’t the only thing to be wary of when buying adult toys.

According to Stacy Stiles, national manager for the home party business Sensual Secrets, there are lots of hidden dangers toy users might not be aware of, including latex allergies, chemical reactions, and proper toy cleaning. “We talk about toy cleaners in our presentations, before the toys — so that when we get to the toys we can go, ‘OK, remember this toy cleaner? This is how you use it,’ and then we’ll demonstrate.

“Even before I’ll sell someone a lube,” Stiles continues, “I make them put it on their fingers and rub it, because if they get a white frothiness, it doesn’t work with their pH balance. I generally say if it does something funky on the outside, it’s going to do something funky on the inside. Some of them cause yeast infections. If you’re a person who’s prone to yeast infections, you want to make sure there’s no sugar, no glycerine in it.”

And as Kerber says, it’s important to inform yourself as to what you’re getting, and choose your products carefully.

“Be careful, because a lot of places just know the right words,” she says. “If it says ‘100 per cent silicone,’ that’s a good thing… you know what that is. ‘Jelly rubber’ is not a technical term. That could be anything.”