Lab tests on rats found that phthalates can cause liver, kidney and testicular damage. Three years ago, Health Canada urged stores to stop selling children's teethers, rattlers and other toys because they contained phthalates.

We told Health Canada about the German findings on phthalates in sex toys. They told us they had no plans to study the matter, saying there's no evidence sex toys may pose a chemical hazard to a user.

The new research is a concern for people like Philip and Leanne Torrens, who freely admit they're big fans of pleasure products. They're concerned their "harmless fun" may actually be harmful. They're not comforted by the fact that Health Canada does not think there's a health risk.

"What that winds up doing is using the public as a guinea pig," Philip Torrens said. "Okay, we don't know necessarily it's bad, so we'll just put it on the market…until something definite comes up however many years from now."

Substandard material common

CHEMICALS FOUND IN SEX TOYS TESTED:

Toluene Cyclohexanone Tetrahydrofuran Diethylhexyl Phthalates Alkane 1-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidinone Phenol Trimethylphosphite Dimethylformamide Dimethyl phosphite

Otter Louis co-owns the sex shop where Philip and Leanne often shop. They stock high quality products made of silicone — with no toxic chemicals. But Louis says 95 per cent of manufacturers churn out sub-standard material.

"You see stuff leeching off and coming out of the product and it looks like it's been sprayed with something shiny and greasy, but nothing has been added," Louis told Marketplace.

Some rubber jellies and plastics break down easily, Louis notes.

"They actually can fragment away. So, leave it to your imagination where that's ending up!"

There's another problem: Health Canada has no regulations requiring that oils, lotions and lubricants list their ingredients. Public health nurse James Tigchelaar says that has caused a lot of adverse reactions.

"I've seen a number of people come in and say…'after using this lubricant I break out in this rash.' It's very painful, it's very irritating, and there's a lot of problems with using specific lotions or lubricants."

Micheline Ciolli echoes that concern. She investigates products for Ben Wa Canada, one of the country's largest distributors of intimate items. She says insufficient labeling is a problem. She has some of the more questionable products analyzed.

"In some of the testing, what we found is that despite the claims of manufacturers, the product had no approval via Health Canada, they were in breach of Canadian packaging standards, and that the ingredients did not appear in the products as they occurred on the label."

Ciolli has complained to Health Canada. So far, no one has responded.

Meanwhile, Marketplace wondered whether the sex toys tested in Germany were available in Canada. They were easy to find in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Health authorities may not be concerned in this country, but Ulrich Krieg thinks there's reason to worry.

"I think consumers must be concerned with toys of this kind," Ulrich Krieg said.

Philip and Leanne Torrens have changed their shopping habits. They steer clear of cheaper plastic and jelly rubber products. They'll only buy silicone, which is non-porous.

"I had toys which I found out…might not be very healthy. I threw them out," Leanne Torrens said.

While they're trying to make sure their bedroom activity is worry-free, they suggest regulation would go a long way to protect others.

"It's the ironic flip side of Pierre Trudeau's famous comment, that the government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation. In fact, in some instances, the government has business in the bedrooms of the nation. Helping make it safe," Philip Torrens said.