Lead Based Toys Controversy

Eyebrows McGee(a.k.a. Laura Petelle) sent me this link to a story about Mattel's lead based toy policies. As a parent, it is very frustrating. WHOI did a toy safety check last year and I remember one toy in particular. It was stacking blocks. Some of them contained lead and some of them didn't. They came from the same package. There is really no way to know for sure if the toy your child is chewing on does or does not contain lead. Oh-and lead is extremely detrimental to brain development and very hard to get out of the body. Figures!

Here's what Laura had to say: "I certainly won't be buying Isaac any Mattel toys until they use
third-party testing labs. It's criminal that the company responsible for six recalls that drove the push for improved testing was able to buy their way out of the new law with lobbying. I know we all expect that from corporations, but Mattel apparently doesn't care that children's lives are at risk."

FROM YAHOO: Toy-makers, clothing manufacturers and other companies selling products for young children are submitting samples to independent laboratories for safety tests. But the nation's largest toy maker, Mattel, isn't being required to do the same.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently, and quietly, granted Mattel's request to use its own labs for testing that is required under a law Congress passed last summer in the wake of a rash of recalls of toys contaminated by lead. Six of those toys were produced by Mattel Inc., and its subsidiary Fisher-Price.

The new law sets strict limits for lead, lead paint and chemicals known as phthalates. It mandates third-party testing for companies, big and small, making products geared for children 12 and under.

"It's really ironic that the company that was a principal source of the problem" is now getting favorable treatment from the government, said Michael Green, executive director of the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, Calif.

Mattel is getting a competitive advantage, Green said, because smaller companies must pay independent labs to do the tests. Testing costs can run from several hundred dollars to many thousands, depending on the test and the toy or product.

Mattel says it demonstrated to the CPSC that its products go through rigorous safety tests. Spokeswoman Lisa Marie Bongiovanni also said Mattel has an appropriate "firewall" in place to ensure test results are protected from corporate influence.

"We have extremely qualified people who work feet away from our production lines," Bongiovanni said. "It allows us to do more testing than any other toy company out there."

Lead can cause irreversible brain damage. The six Mattel-related recalls in 2007 involved more than 2 million toys. They were part of a slew of recalls by several dozen companies. The recalls frightened parents and pressure came to bear on Congress to pass the new law, known as CPSIA. Mattel and Fisher-Price have not had any lead recalls since.

In June, Mattel agreed to pay a $2.3 million civil penalty for violating the lead paint ban.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Get your toys tested for safety!

A NewsAnchorMom reader let me know about a not-for-profit company that is busy testing toys for lead and other dangerous metals in toys. The regulations are getting stricter, but there is still no new law preventing tainted toys from getting putting on store shelves.

I don't know how good of a job they do, but HealthyToys.org lets you fill out a request for toys you think need to be tested. Other people can vote on the list to make your toy a priority. It looks like they test a handful of products each month. Here's the link to request a certain toy be tested. You can also look at the list of toys that have already been tested and see how much lead, cadmium and arsenic are in them.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Testing Toys for Lead Paint

Motivated by recalls of foreign-made toys containing lead, the U.S. Senate sent a clear message Tuesday that hazardous products should not be part of child’s play. They passed legislation that increases funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission-the agency charged with ensuring the safety of toys.

The bill also increases penalties and enforcement against companies that produce harmful products. The U.S. House passed similar legislation in December, but the White House has expressed some concerns over the Senate version. It’s not clear at this point when the bill will reach the house floor for an approval vote.

That means there is still no guarantee the toys our kids are playing with are safe. The station where I work, HOI 19, held a toys testing event last week. Oxford Instruments came down from Chicago with one of its XRF machines, the same machines the Consumer Product Safety Commission uses to screen its toys. I was shocked by what we found at the toy test.

First of all, the toys I brought from home that had been recalled for having lead based paint all came back clean-no lead. (The CPSC recalls all of one kind of toy if it finds a bad batch because there's no way of tracking which batch contained the lead paint.)

Secondly, one stacking block failed, but the other four from the same package passed.

Lastly, just because one toy tests negative for toxins doesn't mean another one that looks exactly the same and is the same brand will test negative.

The main things to keep in mind:

1. Kid's jewelry often contains levels of lead that exceed the federal limit, which is 600 parts per million. One necklace we tested had 10,000 parts per million of lead.

2. Toys bought in other countries are likely to contain high amounts of heavy metals because there are little or no lead laws in other countries. We tested two wooded flutes from Guatemala that had around 46,000 parts per million of lead. Yikes!

3. There is no color that is more likely to test positive than another.

The best thing for parents to do is to go to a toy test and make sure their child's toys don't contain lead or other heavy metals. That isn't an option for most parents, so the Consumer Product Safety Commission recommend signing up on its website to receive the recall list directly to your inbox. I know as a mom, getting warned about a toy after you bought it isn't optimal, but we don't really have a choice at this point.

Kids under three-years-old are the ones we need to be concerned about the most when it comes to lead poisoning. They tend to put toys in their mouths, making them more susceptible. There is no magic pill to get lead out of a child's system overnight. There are some vitamin therapies and chelation that some parents think help, but a lot of the time, the lead never fully leaves a child's system. It gets embedded in the bone.

The number one cause of lead poisoning is not lead found in toys, it's lead found in homes built before 1978(the year lead paint was banned in the U.S.) Cracked and peeling paint is the biggest concern, but even well maintained homes can contain lead dust. Lead paint can also be found in furniture, especially antiques.

The Peoria City/County Health Department recommends all kids get a lead test at one year old. The screening is a simple finger prick. Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, hyperactivity and a host of behavioral issues. It is not detectable without a blood test.

You can watch the series of stories I did leading up to the HOI Toy test.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Lead Poisoning

Most of you probably took into consideration where your child's toys were made when you went shopping for the holidays. Lets face it, we have to be careful. We don't want to be handing our kids something with lead based paint, and now-a-days that seems extremely probable.

But what if the window sill in your child's room is just as toxic? Any home built before 1978 could contain lead based paint. Just painting over the old stuff doesn't protect your kids from getting lead poisoning and having life long learning problems. The biggest challenge with lead poisoning is it's hard to detect. The symptoms can be mild or mimic other illnesses.

Behavioral symptoms in children(according to WebMD)

• Irritability or aggressiveness
• Hyperactivity, being easily distracted,
• impulsiveness
• Learning problems
• Lack of interest in play
• Loss of appetite

Neurological symptoms (caused by effects of lead on the nervous system)

• Poor coordination
• Weakness in hands and feet
• Headaches
• Seizures
• Paralysis
• Coma

If you suspect your child has lead poisoning, especially if you live in a home built before 1978 that has cracking or chipping paint, you can have your pediatrician do a simple blood test for lead. Most public health departments also test kids. If the test is positive, you can look into different forms of treatment including chelation.
From WebMD:

"A recent study showed that declines in IQ can even be seen in children with blood lead concentrations below 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (10 mcg/dL), the level of concern defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization."

Here's a video report dealing with how lead paint is removed from a home safely. It's not as easy as most people think.

Lead Poisoning video on YouTube (2:08)

-NewsAnchorMom Jen