Yoga mats contain toxic chemical harmful to skin

Some models of yoga mats have harmful substances, including formamide, the Consumer Council says after testing 30 models.

Formamide, a compound derived from formic acid, was found in more than  90 percent of the models. In nine models, this exceeded the cut-off limit set by the European’s Toy Safety Directive.

Formamide is used by chemical, pharmaceutical, plastics and polymers industries, as a solvent, plasticiser or adjuvant for a blowing agent in the production of foam.

Also,  30 percent of models had polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with naphthalene in three models exceeding the requirement of German voluntary safety standard GS Mark.

As the skin may come into direct contact with yoga mat for a long period of time and over a large area when practising yoga, or the substances may be inhaled, the council called on the manufacturers to reduce the amount of harmful substances.