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If You're Serious About Small Vintage Dolls, This book is a Must-Have:

BARBIE HISTORY: Germany and France had popular teen fashion dolls as far back as the 1920's. These were quite the rage in Europe during the 1950's.

Barbie probably drew more inspiration from these than from the sweet, gentle American dolls like Sandra Sue and Jill.

The European dolls were flat-out vamps. American manufacturers knew their potential, but deemed them too sexy for the American market. Mattel created a slightly less come-hither doll in Barbie, who was nevertheless a quantum leap in attitude from Vogue Jill or Richwood Sandra Sue. Due to consumer pressure, Barbie has gradually become more and more wholesome-looking over the years. Today Barbie looks a lot like Sandra Sue, and is marketed as a positive role model for young girls.

I always hated Barbie, and really have never liked the teen dolls much.

Being a Boomer kid - pre-women's movement - I felt intuitively that childhood was my last chance at being authentic: Once puberty set in, it was all over. The last thing I dreamed about was becoming a teen or a woman, which, at that time, seemed limited to being a sex object/kitchen slave - in other words, a Barbie! (It would be at least 10 more years before this attitude gained any credence or validity - at the time this was a sign that I was not altogether "well adjusted." I was told that, with the magic of puberty, I would see the light and snap out of it...)

But reading some of these articles have helped me come to a more tolerant appreciation of her. At the very least, she is a cultural Icon, with lots to say about us!

And, Barbie has evolved with the times, now serving as a role model to young children showing them that girls can do ANYTHING!

Malibu Barbie, Holiday Barbie ... Toxic Barbie?...Reprinted with full credit to the WebMD on MSN Health: By Jane Schwanke, WebMD Medical News; Reviewed by Dr. Pamela Yoder

Some Vintage Vinyl Toys May Ooze Chemical That Could Harm Kids

Aug. 25, 2000 -- For generations, parents and grandparents have passed along their old Barbie dolls to little ones. Now a report shows that this might not be such a healthy idea. Information presented this week at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington suggests that some vintage toys -- including Barbies -- may pose a health risk to very young children.

Nancy's Notes: These authors may or may not know their chemistry, but they don't quite have their history right. For starters, Barbie hasn't been around long enough to be passed down "for generations" - Gimme A Break!

And Barbie didn't even appear until the last year of the 1950's decade, so there won't be too many old Grandma's out passing along lots of Barbies from the 1950's. We did recently find my daughter's old 1980's Barbie up in the attic - with the sticky vinyl syndrome described here. (She'd also undergone a partial mastectomy at the tooth of some attic vermin somewhere along the line) We tossed her!

According to Yvonne Shashoua, a conservation scientist and chemist with the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, some old Barbie dolls manufactured in the early years after her release in 1959 contain polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. PVC has also been found in "protective clothing, footwear ...and medical equipment," says Shashoua. Some of these items are deteriorating and oozing a chemical that could disrupt development and interfere with the reproductive system in very young children.

PVC is a chemical found in thousands of products to help keep them soft. While PVC has been linked to cancer and kidney and liver damage in animals, the threat to humans has not been proven. Some European studies have shown that when PVC begins to deteriorate, a chemical is emitted that can mimic the female hormone estrogen, causing potential danger.

But Shashoua says, "It's not a cause for alarm, but rather caution."

"The dolls are not poisonous -- it's not like rat poison," she tells WebMD, "but it is something that can build up in the body and have future effects. The effects are known, but the quantities that can produce an effect are not known," she says. "It's best to be cautious."

But some experts aren't so sure about the Barbie hoopla.

Joseph Prohaska, PhD, says he believes that the report "is a bit overreacting." He says, in fact, estrogen similar to that found in some Barbie dolls is not harmful. "I would be careful not to pull the fire alarm without more information," he tells WebMD. Prohaska is professor and biochemist in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Maryland had no specific comment about PVC in old Barbie dolls, but a spokeswoman did tell WebMD, "We will review the work conducted by the Danish researchers and determine if there is a need for concern."

Owners of vintage dolls can recognize PVC by a stickiness or the 'tacky' feel on the outside the doll. "These [dolls] have become sticky on the surface and difficult to handle," Shashoua says. "If you have a Barbie doll from the '50s and it's sticky, always wash your hands and never let children lick or chew them. The best thing is to put them in a plastic bag and avoid contact with the surface."

But although many people have vintage Barbies, it's not likely that many of the dolls in circulation pose a health risk. According to collector Sarah Locker, president of the Barbie Doll Club of Eastern Oklahoma in Tulsa, "This doesn't concern me too much because most of these dolls are in the hands of adult collectors and rarely handled," she tells WebMD. "Collectable dolls are usually kept in climate-controlled situations well away from sunlight and are not exposed to the elements that cause the plasticizers to leak."

No one really knows how many vintage Barbies or other toys containing PVC are in circulation because everyday, more are found in the back of closets, basements, and in attics. And these are the toys most likely to be emitting the chemicals. Still, Locker has seen only two or three dolls that were sticky, and says that's because "they were stored in the attic, which resulted in extreme cold and hot temperatures that can force the plasticizer out of the doll." These dolls -- which the collectors call 'greasy' -- can be filled with cornstarch to help absorb the plasticizers back into the doll and then stored in acid-free tissue paper.

Locker says that if the old dolls are kept away from strong sunlight and in a reasonably climate-controlled area, most of them will remain in good condition for several years and not become sticky.

Mattel Inc., manufacturer of the Barbie doll, did not respond to WebMD's request for comment. However, Shashoua says that use of the troublesome substance has been generally banned, and a new formula now used in PVC products does not pose a known health risk.

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