I made the mistake of believing this was a safe toy, later to find out it is carcinogenic. Very infuriating, as they are risking our children's health to make a buck, please do not support this company! Hope this helps you make a more informed choice. I discovered a company called Hevea, that makes natural rubber teethers with no paint on them, so that is what I bought as a safer alternative to Sophie, hopefully they are more honest then Sophie's maker.
From the article: "I recently read an article in a well respected French news paper Le Monde (you can use the Google translate tool to read it in English) about how my daughter's, and many other babies', favorite teething toy "Sophie the Giraffe" has tested positive for potentially cancer causing nitrosamines. Nitrosamines are a known possible carcinogen that are illegal in baby bottles and pacifiers in Europe. In France this has caused a big debate about both journalism and marketing of non-toxic toys. Sophie is marketed as being one of the safest toys out there. If she has nitrosamines in her, that doesn't seem quite right."
For more info:http://blog.saferchemicals.org/2011/12/whatsophiethegiraffetestedtoxicinfrance(DOT)html
This appears to link to a blog promoting a political campaign in the US. That blog posts links to two French newspapers - one of those allegedly carries the original warnings, but the link does not work for me, the second appears to be a rebuttal along the lines of "The level of chemicals is almost certainly safe and we're going to be getting them even lover (i.e. to 0)".
Note: I used Google Chrome's translation on the second article, so there is every chance I missed details in it. If a French speaking reader wants to chime in it would be valuable.
UPDATE: A further check found the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_the_ Giraffe), which appears to have information that matches the broken translation I used of the second article. The Wikipedia page claims (at the time of writing this) that the toy failed the test of teethers according to a German consumer review magazine (?KO-TEST), but the manufacturing company (Vulli) says it passes the test required for toys. Logically this would suggest that chewing on Sophie frequently (i.e. more than they chew on their other non-teether toys) is unsafe and that the child should use dedicated teethers (which hopefully do pass the tests - but you should Google them too to check).
Fortunately my baby doesn't like it at all. It stays in the corner after only a few bites. I was complaining it was a waste of money. Now I'm so glad he barely use it... ★ Sent from iPhone App: i-Reader Huaren 7.56 - iPad Lite
I made the mistake of believing this was a safe toy, later to find out
it is carcinogenic. Very infuriating, as they are risking our children's
health to make a buck, please do not support this company! Hope this
helps you make a more informed choice. I discovered a company called
Hevea, that makes natural rubber teethers with no paint on them, so that
is what I bought as a safer alternative to Sophie, hopefully they are
more honest then Sophie's maker.
From the article: "I recently
read an article in a well respected French news paper Le Monde (you can
use the Google translate tool to read it in English) about how my
daughter's, and many other babies', favorite teething toy "Sophie the
Giraffe" has tested positive for potentially cancer causing
nitrosamines. Nitrosamines are a known possible carcinogen that are
illegal in baby bottles and pacifiers in Europe. In France this has
caused a big debate about both journalism and marketing of non-toxic
toys. Sophie is marketed as being one of the safest toys out there. If
she has nitrosamines in her, that doesn't seem quite right."
For more info:http://blog.saferchemicals.org/2011/12/whatsophiethegiraffetestedtoxicinfrance(DOT)html
This appears to link to a blog promoting a political campaign in the US.
That blog posts links to two French newspapers - one of those allegedly
carries the original warnings, but the link does not work for me, the
second appears to be a rebuttal along the lines of "The level of
chemicals is almost certainly safe and we're going to be getting them
even lover (i.e. to 0)".
Note: I used Google Chrome's translation
on the second article, so there is every chance I missed details in it.
If a French speaking reader wants to chime in it would be valuable.
UPDATE: A further check found the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_the_ Giraffe),
which appears to have information that matches the broken translation I
used of the second article. The Wikipedia page claims (at the time of
writing this) that the toy failed the test of teethers according to a
German consumer review magazine (?KO-TEST), but the manufacturing
company (Vulli) says it passes the test required for toys. Logically
this would suggest that chewing on Sophie frequently (i.e. more than
they chew on their other non-teether toys) is unsafe and that the child
should use dedicated teethers (which hopefully do pass the tests - but
you should Google them too to check).
唉~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
★ 发自Android 华人阅览器 5.0
OMG, 刚买的新的。。。
美国这边应该都是假的，每个sophie都有个序列号，但是美国这边包括在toysrus卖的翻来复去就两个一样的号码，大家可以去店里看看，或者在amazon上多定几个一看就知道了，我当初买了三个都有问题才发现的
★ 发自Android 华人阅览器 5.0
What do u mean? How many digits?
感觉小孩的东西很多都不安全，比如版上很POPULAR的179刀的爬行垫，AMAZON上也有很多不好的评价
爬行垫咋了?????
★ Sent from iPhone App: i-Reader Huaren 7.56 - iPad Lite
不知道能不能退呀
以下是引用小龙龙在6/16/2012 6:28:00 PM的发言：
OMG, 刚买的新的。。。
面壁去。
★ 发自Android 华人阅览器 5.0
感觉小孩的东西很多都不安全，比如版上很POPULAR的179刀的爬行垫，AMAZON上也有很多不好的评价
求细节?
OMG, 刚买的新的。。。
刚买了，要退掉吗？
哎～我已经给还没出生的孩子囤过了
米兔啊，，我囤得不是SOPHIE是同一厂家的蘑菇牙胶。。。。
唉。。。。果断收起来。。。
以下是引用vegetablecar在6/18/2012 1:33:00 PM 的发言：
哎～我已经给还没出生的孩子囤过了
★ 发自iPhone App: ChineseWeb 7.3
★ Sent from iPhone App: i-Reader Huaren Lite 7.56