Toys & Lead Paint: Proactive Ways to keep Your Family Safe

Laurel Peltier is a contributing writer for Earth 911. Become an Earth 911 contributor.

Question: “How much lead is too much lead?”

A friend asked that question as we chatted about the recent toy recalls. And while it’s true we are more knowledgeable about lead and its adverse effects on the brain, and have eliminated it from many sources (namely gas and paint), knowing the facts about lead are critical because you don’t want your child exposed to lead.

What seemed like a huge toy recall or two has now turned into a weekly occurrence. It’s a safe prediction that toys and children’s products tainted with toxic levels of lead-paint will continue for some time based on how difficult it’s been to stop lead-filled metal jewelry from being sold (read point #5 below).

Parents, schools and day cares can and should take proactive steps to ensure they know their lead facts as lead exposure can be very serious. Lead exposure is asymptomatic. The damage is irreversible and can include learning disabilities and brain damage in young children, who absorb lead at a rate five times greater than adults.

And the Answer: No level of lead is safe.

Backtracking a bit, how did Elmo and Barbie get coated with lead paint in 2007?

• A fast migration of toy manufacturing to China. Over 80 percent of the roughly $20 billion U.S. toy market is stamped “Made in China.”
• According to the Toy Industry Association, there are over 5,000 Chinese toy manufacturers making the process difficult to control.
• A U.S. regulatory environment light on fines, regulations and testing requirements for toys. Testing is voluntary and today there is no federal limit on lead in children’s products.
• Fewer inspectors at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the governmental agency charged with tracking product safety. The number of inspectors is down to 200 from 420 while the imported toy volume surged.
• A competitive and mature toy market shrinking profits and driving cost cutting.

Here’s your lead check list:

1. Know recalled toys and remove them from your home—Subscribe to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall emails (choose the list named “child)”. About once a week you will receive a short email with the pertinent details you need on where to send the toys for refunds and why the toy was recalled. Quickly glance over past recalls, and clear the toys out.
2. Do not assume toys are safe for your child to put in their mouth—Lynn Goldman MD, MPH, a pediatrician and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests, “If it’s not made for eating and drinking, don’t assume it’s okay. A study conducted during my tenure at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found toddlers put their hands to their mouths up to 26 times an hour, the mean being 9.5. Lead exposure can cause brain development delays and can occur at very low levels.”
3. Frequently wash your child’s hands and toys after play—Though this may seem unrealistic, it’s smart to practice this simple step. According to Dr. Kirsten Brinkmann at The Maryland Pediatric Group in Lutherville, Maryland, “Lead is either ingested or inhaled. Similar to avoiding colds, the best prevention is frequent hand and toy washing.” She also suggests you ask your pediatrician the role vitamin supplements with iron and a healthy diet have in eliminating lead from children’s systems.
4. Test your children for lead, and ask for the results—Toy recalls have brought to light that the leading cause of lead exposure is still dust from lead-based paint in homes built prior to 1978. Linda Block, Coordinator of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at University of North Carolina-Asheville’s Environmental Quality Institute, advises parents, “Though lead found in toys is a threat, the larger threat is still dust from lead-based paint in older homes. Be careful when you renovate, and maintain all surfaces that could have lead paint beneath them. Though many states require mandatory blood lead testing of children at ages one and two, if your state isn’t one, absolutely insist your toddler is tested. And, ask for the results in case you ever have to test again, it’s good to know your child’s baseline.”
5. Throw out kid’s shiny metal jewelry, especially if small kids are in your home—In 2005 over 150 million pieces of kid’s trinket metal jewelry were recalled due to high lead levels. Lead was used as the filler and then coated. Wearing the jewelry will not cause lead exposure, but sucking on or swallowing it is another matter. In 2006 a four-year-old swallowed a Reebok shoe trinket and died from lead poisoning. Even though the toy industry, retailers and the CPSC have worked together to purge the system, lead-tainted metal jewelry is still on store shelves. According to a September 2007 study by the New York Times, testing revealed that stores still sold jewelry containing toxic lead levels. It will be impossible to sift through the many recalls to determine if your child’s jewelry is lead-tainted, you should assume it is, throw it out and only buy jewelry from reputable retailers.
6. Do not rely on home lead testing kits to determine if lead is present—If your child has really bonded to a toy or an item, and you’re concerned about the possibility of lead present, consider the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s advice: “Only a certified laboratory can accurately test a toy for lead. Although do-it-yourself kits are available, they do not indicate how much lead is present and their reliability at detecting low levels of lead has not been determined.” Call the National Lead Information Center to learn about testing (800) 424-LEAD.
7. Consider emailing your representatives with your support—Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) have introduced bills that finally put into law the needed limits on lead, mandatory testing requirements and regulations for products sold to children under the age of six.

Feel free to email any questions or comments to moms4healthyplanet@comcast.net.