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A mapping of products and material used within live role-play

Summary and conclusions

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency has requested a survey of the range of products within live role play, including what kind materials that are used when children and youth produce their own role-play equipment. Equipment includes weapons, suits, artificial noses/ears, masks, etc.

During the past years, live role-playing has become an increasingly popular hobby among children and youth. It is estimated that within one year as many as 100.000 children and youth (mostly boys) between 8 and 18 will to some degree participate actively in role playing – and almost all boys will at some point in their childhood/youth be involved in this activity.

As this niche has developed into a more common leisure activity for children and youth, a market has evolved providing equipment and merchandise for live role play. The trade is charecterised by its crusading spirit, and it is only within the last few years that the great toy stores and supermarkets have joined in.

Through visits to Danish producers and distributors of equipment for live role play and investigations of various home pages, CASA has mapped out various types of equipment and the extension of the ready products that are commercialised and used in role play. The materials and the production of home-made products have also been mapped. The overall purpose of the survey was to investigate if the role-play activity involved materials that could pose a risk to the environment or people’s health.

A large amount of the home-made equipment is being produced in after school day care and youth centres. This project includes a survey of the extension of the home-made equipment, what materials are being used in the production of this equipment (primarily various types of weapons) and what methods and procedures are most common in e.g. youth centers. The main part of the materials used in the production of home-made role-play weapons are not materials intended for role-playing, but are products that are sold at a DIY stores.

Besides from this mapping, the report also provides laboratory analyses of a number of products. The analyses comprise a study of the content of the products and also testing through simulated production of home-made latex weapons.

Ready products

Figure 1 shows the estimated sale per item in 2005. The figures are the result of interviews with producers and distributors.

Figure 1: sale of products for role playing

Make-up is also a commonly used product, but this was described in an earlier mapping (Mapping of chemical substances in consumer products No. 5 2002) and is not part of this project.

Through visits to the distributors, declarations have been mapped, and product data sheets have been collected for the products that were selected for the survey. The chemical content was examined in a number of these products and by their CAS-numbers these were examined for risk components on the list of dangerous substances at the EU chemical database at EBC (European Chemical Bureau)

A data sheet was drawn up for each of these product and these were handed over to the Environmental Protection Agency. The report contains unnamed parts of these data sheets.

Laboratory analyses were conducted on the following ready products:

Latex masks
Two different products were analysed for the exposure of MTB (2-mercapbenzothiazel) to people through sweat. MTB is commonly used as an accelerator in the production of latex. MTB may cause allergic reactions in people, which is why the Environmental Protection Agency wishes to test the masks for migration of the substance.

Cast-solid latex masks carried during role plays were also analysed for volatile organic compounds (VOC) and semi volatile organic substances (SVOC).

Neither MTB, nor VOC/SVOC was detected in any of the masks.

Skin glue

Skin glue contained in a kit consisting of latex ears and skin glue was selected. The glue did not have a specific declaration and a data sheet was not accessible.

The content of the glue was analysed for solvents, VOC and SVOC (volatile and semi volatile organic substances). Three different solvents in various amounts and 14 VOC/SVOC variants above the detection limit were found.

Wine skins

The inner waterproof coating was analysed. The material was identified as PVC softened by the phthalate DEHP. Though determination in duplicate the content was estimated to be 22-25% (percent by weight)

It is not the purpose of this project to evaluate the results of the mapping and analyses from a health perspective.

Home-made weapons

During the past 5 years, home-made role-play weapons have developed from being fairly primitive weapons made of sleeping pads and duct tape into advanced latex weapons. The home-made weapon activity is a central feature of this report, partly due to its popularity and partly due to these weapons’ possible content of dangerous materials, and it is a field which sees a great deal of experiments in order to reduce the price and increase the quality in the competition with the ready-made weapons.

Through interviews with active role players, distributors and role-play clubs, the materials typically used in the home production of role play weapons have been mapped. Furthermore, questionnaires distributed in youth centres were used in order to reveal how and under which circumstances the production takes place.

The result of the survey does not provide a complete mapping of the amount of latex weapons produced in youth clubs. The survey revealed a production of around 15-20.000 per year, but it should be considered that maybe only one third of the youth clubs in which latex weapons are produces have filled in the questionnaire (those that did not return the questionnaire were randomly checked), and the amount of weapons produced may therefore be much higher.

The most commonly used materials are:

• Glass fibre sticks (core)
• Plastic foam (forming the weapon)
• Contact glue (gluing plastic foam pieces together)
• Colour toner (ground colouring of latex)
• Liquid latex (coating)
• Paint (decoration of the weapon)
• Silicon (protective surface)

Most of these groups of material have a wide selection of products. Commercial producers and distributors of role-play equipment, who are often great role play fiery souls themselves, are aware that they may cause possible health hazards, and products that are assumed to be of less risk are selected, e.g. water-based contact glue, latex with a low content of ammonia and non gas propellant containing silicone. However, the survey among youth clubs shows that these often shop at the local DIY stores and the like. Silicon sprays intended for protection of rubber lists in cars for finishing weapons is an example of a product shopped here.

In the institutions, the products are handled in various ways. In some institutions, production takes place with the windows shot, and in others, it is done outside. Only a few institutions have the right ventilation. The institutions’ own idea of what may be dangerous also varies. Only a very few of them consider themselves to have a high knowledge of the dangers involved in this field of production and generally, there is a wish for more information on what to be aware of when producing role-play weapons.

Two laboratory analyses were conducted with the purpose of testing whether the way the materials are handled during home production may cause an undesired effect.

The first test was a simulation of the application of latex to a weapon. Two tests were carried out with different latex products containing dissimilar amounts of ammonia. The air in the breathing zone was analysed for ammonia, nitrosamines and the organic substances VOC and SVOC.

The analyses revealed that there was a considerable difference in the vapour of ammonia between the two latex samples (factor 10), while no vapour from nitrosamine was registered.  Various VOC and SVOC vapours were registered in both samples.

The second analysis was a simulation of sanding of plastic foam to examine the extent to which a person is exposed to slip when the plastic foam is sanded with fine sand paper. The test showed, however, that the slip did not rise to the air, but dropped to the table. No considerable amount of slip was detected in the breathing zone.

An evaluation of the health perspectives is not part of this project.

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Version 1.0 August 2007, © Danish Environmental Protection Agency