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December 29 2007
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Many Toys Contain Dangerous Chemicals

toys, child, lead, safetyTests on 1,200 children’s items revealed that more than one-third contained lead and other potentially dangerous chemicals such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic.

The study, directed by the Environmental Health Project of the Ecology Center in Michigan, also found that jewelry products were the most likely to contain high levels of lead.

Other items, such as bedroom slippers, bath toys and card-game cases were also tainted, some with as much as five times the standard safety level of lead. One Hannah Montana card-game case, for instance, had lead levels of 3,056 parts per million.

The study was conducted to spur government officials to take action against tainted toys. Millions of toys, most of them made in China, have already been recalled in 2007.

Dr. MercolaDr. Mercola's Comments:
Lead was supposedly banned for use in U.S. products marketed to children in 1978, but that doesn’t stop U.S. companies from importing lead-laced toys and selling them with fervor. Up to 80 percent of toys sold in the United States are manufactured in China.

Meanwhile, there is a loophole in the ban that still allows lead to legally exist in your child’s toys -- even those made here in the United States -- and that is plastic.

The use of lead in plastics has not been banned. This may explain the high levels of lead found in children’s jewelry.

As children are well known for putting anything and everything into their mouths, their toys simply must be pure. Children are more susceptible to lead absorption than adults, and even low levels of lead exposure have been linked to:
  • Decreased intelligence
  • Impaired neurobehavioral development
  • Decreased stature and growth
  • Impaired hearing acuity 
Yet, lead is not the only chemical that you need to worry about contaminating your children’s toys. Other toxins found in toys include:
  • Mercury: A known neurotoxin that can harm your child’s developing brain.
  • Cadmium: A known carcinogenic. Long-term exposure to low levels of cadmium can contribute to kidney disease, lung damage and fragile bones, and animal studies also suggest that it may lead to liver disease, high blood pressure, and nerve or brain damage.
  • Arsenic: Long-term exposure to arsenic has been linked to cancer. Exposure to low levels of arsenic can cause nausea and vomiting, decreased production of red and white blood cells, abnormal heart rhythm, damage to blood vessels, and a sensation of "pins and needles" in hands and feet, and over the long term can cause darkening of the skin and the appearance of small "corns" or "warts" on the palms, soles, and torso.
  • Phthalates: Used in soft plastic toys and baby bottles, these chemicals can mimic or block sex hormones, causing disruption of your endocrine system and early puberty in children.
How to Find Safe Toys for Your Kids

The good thing about all of the media coverage on this issue is that many parents are becoming very choosy about the toys they buy.

Here are some tips to help make sure the toys your children play with are safe.
  • Seek out toy-making companies that still maintain quality and safety in their products. Be sure to ask questions about their toys, such as what types of chemicals are used in their production.
  • Look for organic and “green” environmentally friendly toys that use beeswax-based coatings, natural vegetable dyes and organic, chemical-free fabrics and materials (such as wool, cotton and bamboo).
  • Support companies that use third-party testing of their products for lead and other heavy metals.
  • Toys that are painted should always be labeled as having “lead-free paint,” but still avoid buying painted toys made outside of the United States or Europe.
  • Get creative. Books, sports equipment, music, and even cardboard boxes that can be turned into forts make great, safe alternatives to traditional “toys.”

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Community Comments ( 54 )
Comment on this Article
  
  
foxtroter
[ Joined on 09/06 ] [ Posted on December 6, 2007 ]
13 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
The media seems to have gotten on the band wagon now about lead and other toxic substances in toys. This is good. I wonder when this same media interest will spread to the pesticides and other poisons in our food supply?
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
EQ
[ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on December 7, 2007]
6 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
If children's items are this contaminated, just imagine how toxic the products aimed at adults are!

I buy very little, and when I do, I try to buy locally made.  Some things, like Toyota cars, are a Japanese company, but many are assembled in the US, meanwhile GM has moved their plants to Mexico.  So the so-called American companies aren't so American.
Mercola
  
Russ Bianchi
[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on December 10, 2007]
1 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Doc, the western media may go after gmo, and other herbicides and pesticides, and such, if they are not losing advertising revenue over it...

China is an easy target to sensationalize, because the western media are not beholden to a despot and utterly corrupt Chinese communist dictatorship, but rather ARE in the pocket of domestic advertisers, including proponents of many of the food and beverage and drug harmful brands touted in their own papers and electronic media.
Mercola
  
BrianSD
[ Joined on 11/07 ]  [ Posted on December 29, 2007]
       
   
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
  Mercola

The media will jump on the band wagon when it is proven the the risks of pesticides to consumers outweigh the benefits.  Let's not panic too soon.

  
  
mominnorthidaho
[ Joined on 08/07 ] [ Posted on December 28, 2007 ]
10 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Not only our food but also our water supplies are being taninted.  Under the umbrella or continued recreational usage and tourism, our local waterways are being bombed with aquatic herbicides to combat what have been deemed invasive aquatic plants.  States are spending millions of dollars each year putting a whole lot of herbicides into our waterways.  There are no long term studies.  There are no studies on the effect on children and women of child bearing age.  There are in many cases, natural insecticidal biological enemies of these plants - of course, these projects are not receiving State and University funding because the chemical companies do not stand to gain anything by them.  And the areas where the herbicides are effective are not bing replanted with native plants.  They then leave a clean bed for the next invasive to take over.  What are we thinking?  When is the world going to recognize that we have a shortage of water and continued clean, uncontaminated drinking water should be more important that recreational access?  Are we the human race going to regret our decisions in the near future?  

 [ Reply ]
  
  
Sheila C
[ Joined on 12/06 ] [ Posted on December 7, 2007 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
Why is it up to the government to make sure these products are safe?  Why isn't the onus on the manufacturers of these products to have them tested?  What a good marketing tool for them if they could test them at a 3rd party lab and declare them "tested for contaminants and contains none".
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
rwallace
[ Joined on 12/06 ]  [ Posted on December 7, 2007]
2 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola
problem is that the 3rd party lab would be mostly likely sposnored/funded by them.  This has been a long time marketing trick thanks to Bernays.
Mercola
  
Sheila C
[ Joined on 12/06 ]  [ Posted on December 7, 2007]
1 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
Hi rwallace, are you saying there is no third party lab in the United States, that is not corrupt?
  
  
mmc88121
[ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on December 6, 2007 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Moderator User
Books would still be a better choice.

Mary
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
AZhiker
[ Joined on 01/07 ]  [ Posted on December 29, 2007]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Books printed in the US, even better choice.

  
  
Alexis
[ Joined on 11/07 ] [ Posted on December 29, 2007 ]
6 Points        
   
 
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.

Why do some of you folks feel that the Chinese are ADDING lead to the paints?  Did it occur to you that some paint colors have lead in them by nature? It's a very common contaminant and remember that we stuffed out paints with lead for decades AND it was known! China is only following our own patterns of corporate greed.  Remember anyone, when we willingly sold personal hygiene products filled with dioxin and when the stinking government whore, the FDA openly endorsed and advertised it??  The FDA only recently allowed contaminted pork and chicken to be sold and eaten---they allowed it! They were created to NOT allow tainted meats to cross state lines but they not only allowed people and children to eat it, but they enorsed it!! We do this kind of evil to our own children all the time, we STILL do it! Wake up. Taking steps to protect our children from tainted toys needs to be done, but no need to be so paranoid and self-righteous.  Our own country is foul and evil with greed. Jeeze.

 [ Reply ]
  
  
lypoProtein
[ Joined on 07/07 ] [ Posted on December 29, 2007 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Hello people of the USA, the best country in the world!

You guys always blame "imported" items to poison your country in many ways.

What about your country poisoning the world?

Your conventional medicine standards get exported, influence or even coerce medical standards around the world to treat people based on the symptoms after having sickness by using magic pills, raditions, surgery, etc. (I mean in the past & at present, not in the future when your government may realize the benefits of prevention from whole foods, air, sun, water, exercise, german new medicine, etc, as always stated in this website.) The prey of this standard also includes the only daughter of one of my friends. She has had leukemia and has been treated with "chemo" for years because of conventional american medicine. (I guess i am not wrong that chemo was originated in the USA.) Finally, guess what, no doubt, she passed away a few days ago at the age of 11 because of american medical standard, stupid chemotherapy used around the world! Before the death, she has suffered from pelvic bone loss making it very difficult to walk for years. Forgive me if chemo was not the invention and margetting attempts from the USA.

Even more, there are tons of MLM businesses penetrating around in my country claiming that their food supplements are full of health benefits although they're nothing but soy concentrate. And convincing people to purchase at a very expensive price & try to teach them that it's very essential for daily life, please eat it xx table spoons per day, in addition to normal food consumption, even if it sums up to be around 700 grams of protein, way beyond the maximum need of an average person. Very deceptive. All rubbish MLM businesses are imported from the USA! They're very annoying and thinking only about $$$$. I'd better spend the same amount of money to buy kilos of fresh broccoli for a full one month, a lot more nutritious!

www.newstarget.com    is also worth taking a look.

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
WellnessMom
[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on December 29, 2007]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

If you'd like to look at the MLM businesses as being only out for money...you should probably take a look at any traditional business, American or otherwise as being deceptive and full of rubbish because there are so many that are only out for the money and they don't really care about anyone's "health" so to say. It's ALL about the PROFIT!

Mercola
  
The New Christine
[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on December 31, 2007]
       
   
Savvy User
  Mercola

Sorry, everyone, but I have to agree.  It's so easy to put the blame on China with the lead poisoning, but our own country does it's own share of poisoning the world.  And another thing, they say it is illegal in this country to use lead in the production of many items, but with it's whole hearted corrupt system do you really think that anyone really listens to that?  Really.  The FDA gets away with poisoning us one way, the USDA another and the list goes on and on.  What makes anyone think that we are safe from products produced here???  Food for thought.  (No Trans Fat or Hydrogenated Oils included)

Mercola
  
Alexis
[ Joined on 11/07 ]  [ Posted on January 29, 2008]
       
   
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
  Mercola

Good post, thank you!

  
  
EQ
[ Joined on 03/07 ] [ Posted on December 28, 2007 ]
5 Points        
   
 
Savvy User

Poisoning children.  This is so incredibly sad to me.

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
dadelp
[ Joined on 07/07 ]  [ Posted on December 29, 2007]
13 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

EQ,

This poisoning begins at birth with our children. It starts with the vaccines that children are "mandated" to receive. Actually, as is the case with my son; in many instances it begins before birth, with the exposure heaped on the parents. A perfect example; both my husband and I were raised in homes with coal furnaces (the toxic burn off of coal is mercury). We then were both in the military and got more vaccines than either of remembers. Add to all of this that we both had (I had mine removed in 2005) "silver" (= mercury) fillings from our younger days. And it's real easy to see the "genetic" link