Testing toys for toxins

Safety groups make a list, tell parents to check it twice

Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News

ROCHESTER HILLS -- Noelle O'Neill watches her son Nick scan the room for a toy. The 7-month-old needs only seconds to scoot across the carpet, swipe a lonely plaything off the ground and thrust it in his mouth for a good chew.

"Everything goes in the mouth," said the former elementary school teacher turned full-time mother.

The tidal wave of toy recalls already has O'Neill on the defensive about what toys her son should play with. But the Rochester Hills mom, 32, will get some help knowing what dangers lurk in her own home and on store shelves this holiday season. A Michigan environmental health group released research today on toxic chemicals found in more than 1,200 toys, some of which exceeded by 10 times the federal guidelines for lead and some that contained arsenic and mercury.

The complete list of toys tested can be found at

The Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center, along with six other environmental health groups, spent six months analyzing the chemical content of 1,268 toys, from baby rattles and chew toys to Hannah Montana shoulder bags and action figures.

Their research examined each toy for lead, cadmium, chlorine/PVC, arsenic and mercury. Their findings reveal that lead, which is banned in gasoline and paint but not in toys, is widespread in children's toys and that many are made of polyvinyl chloride plastic, which contains additives that can be dangerous to human health.

"We detected lead in 35 percent of the 1,200 products. That was higher than we would have predicted," Mike Shriberg, policy director for the Ecology Center said. "Of those with lead, 17 percent exceeded the federal recall standard for lead. That was surprisingly high. And very few of these products have actually been recalled."

Tests also found arsenic in 17 products and mercury in five toys. Two testing methods were used: an X-ray technology that identifies elements in the surface of a product, called an XRF machine, and lab testing for lead.

Based on these results, toys were assigned a low, medium or high designation to indicate the level of a chemical in a product.

When children put these products into their mouths, some of these chemicals may enter their bodies through contact with saliva, say researchers and doctors. Some of the substances also can be released directly into the air that children breathe or cause exposure through house dust.

Lead is most serious threat

Dr. Charles Barone, chairman of pediatrics at Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit and president of the Michigan chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said lead remains the most serious threat to infants and children, whose brains and bodies are developing and are the most vulnerable to damage from toxic chemicals.

"Lead is a toxin on the brain," Barone said. "The body absorbs lead and to a developing brain it can be devastating. Levels as low as 10 micrograms and under may cause lowering IQ levels."

Yet federal recall standards for lead don't cover toys until they reach 600 parts per million. The study found 10 toys with lead ranging from 5,000 PPM to 23,788 PPM including a tea set, an Elmo card game and baby shoes.

Less is known about the effects of the other chemicals, Barone said, which are hazardous in large amounts, but the data isn't clear about their impact in lower levels. Barone said the recalls and the extensive amount of chemicals found in children's toys has been a wake up call for health professionals.

"We need to re-examine everything. That's not very heartening for parents," he said. "Parents who are worried should ask their pediatrician. We don't have all the data we'd like to have that these toys are causing problems."

Joan Lawrence, vice president of standards and safety at the Toy Industry Association Inc. in New York, which represents more than 500 toy manufacturers in North America, said the toxic chemicals in question in the study are never intentionally added to toys -- they are all naturally occurring elements in the environment. She also challenged the testing methods used in the study, saying the XRF analyzer is not reliable for examining the surface coating of toys.

"It cannot discern from the coating and what's underneath. It (the chemical) is not accessible when it's impeded in the products," Lawrence said. "This study provides information without any context. The federal government has jurisdiction to regulate these substances further but they have not found a need to. These substances are not accessible."

'This is a worry for me'

Jennifer Koss plans to navigate the list today as her 10-month-old son Jack crawls around the house. Koss, 37, just purchased a Noah's Ark toy with animals and watches as her son sticks every piece he picks up into his mouth.

"Every day this is a worry for me. It's hard to find a toy out there that doesn't give you pause," said Koss, of Madison Heights. "You feel like you are on your own. I will definitely be looking at the list."

Other parents like Amanda Raimi, who has a 3-year-old son and 16-month-old daughter, admit they don't worry a lot about their children's toys. Raimi says she pays attention to recalls and relies on retailers such as Target who have pulled recalled merchandise off shelves and have posted information about recalls on their Web site.

"I probably put too much faith in them. You would think toys would be made not to harm your children," she said.

The good news from the report shows 28 percent of the toys tested did not contain any lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury or PVC, including many made in China.

"Toy manufactures can make toys without these chemicals," Shriberg said. "For parents, looking at the list is a start. We only tested 1,200 out of the millions of toys out there."

There is virtually no oversight on chemicals used in children's products, even those made in the U. S. The Michigan Legislature is moving a package of legislation that penalizes retailers for selling children's products with lead levels exceeding federal recall limits

"Parents can't shop their way out of this problem. You can clean out the toy box but the next toy could be just as harmful," Shriberg said. "The only answer is a regulatory answer."

You can reach Jennifer Chambers at (248) 647-7402 or jchambers@detnews.com.