Wednesday, February 1, 2012

How to spot lead poison on my Godzilla Toy?

I have a question abot how to spot lead poisoning?

I have a 2007 Godzilla final wars 12 inch toy and someone told me it has lead in it. Are there any ways I could find out for myself?|||You can order a free lead test kit.

www.pdc.us/new/releases/2008/0513-lead鈥?br>


But as many people don't know all paint has some degree of lead in it that is acceptable. Excessive lead is the cause of many imports being recalled.



One of every three toys tested in a study of 1,500 popular children's toys contained potentially harmful levels of lead, arsenic, mercury and other dangerous chemicals, according to findings released earlier this month by the Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based consumer safety organization.







On Feb. 10, 2009, a new federal law 鈥?the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act 鈥?will set new limits on the amount of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead and other potentially unsafe chemicals allowed in children's products. The new legal limit for cadmium in children's products will be 75 parts per million, arsenic will be 25 ppm, mercury will be 60 ppm and lead will be 600 ppm. Based on these limits and related safety standards limiting bromine levels to 1000 ppm, the Ecology Center generated its list of the year's "worst toys," which includes, but doesn't rank, the toys with highest levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury or bromide.



The U.S. is cracking down on dangerous levels of chemicals in toys. But China has been doing this since the 80's. Nothing new really, we are just being more conscious of the fact now.|||China was having a problem recently with lead being found in paint it was using on toys. That caused a big fervor this year.

Was it made in China?

I guess you could have someone at a lab do a test on the paint on it, to see if it contains lead.

I'm no expert, but I think it would be safe as long as you someone doesn't put the toy in their mouth. The problem with toys having lead-based is that a lot of kids do put toys in their mouths.

I thought toy companies and the US government was cracking down on the use of lead, and that it was taken care of. I've seen the same Godzilla toys at my local stores, so perhaps the situation's been taken care of?|||TOYS:

The quickest / easiest way to test paint on toys is to use a product called "Lead Check". They are small white tubes that deliver a chemical (sodium rodizinate) to the surface. There are other brands but I prefer Lead Check.



If there is leach-able lead it will turn color (pink or red). Which means children should not be allowed to chew or mouth them.



HINT: They cost about $3.00 each BUT !!! (Lead Check hates me to teach this) ... There are 5 to 7 drops in each tube. If you use a clean dry cotton swab on each item, you can get 5 to 7 tests.



For more info please read http://home.mindspring.com/~wrltc/lswp.p鈥?/a> Its a book I wrote for parents doing re-modeling or having it done. And lead issues in general. It was paid for by a fed/state grant. Which means its your book as much as mine. Education about this subject is my job.



For more direct questions please contact me at wrltc@mindspring.com And feel free to pass this along to others.
  • tess gerritsen
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