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This Christmas, when you’re shopping for the little ones in your
life, don’t just thoughtlessly grab toys off the store shelves. An
environmental group found that a mind-boggling 1 in 3 toys tested was
found to contain toxic chemicals like lead, flame retardants and
arsenic. The Ecology Center tested more than 1,500 popular toys for
contaminants and found that one-third of them contain “medium” or
“high” levels of chemicals of concern.

From CNN:

Researchers bought the toys at chain stores including
Target, Kmart, Toys R Us, Babies R Us, TJ Maxx, and Wal-Mart, as well
as drug stores, dollar stores, on-line retailers and independent toy
stores, according to the HealthyToys.org Web site, where the report was
posted.

The toys were purchased at stores in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Mich.; Oakland, Calif.; and Albany, N.Y.

The group’s Web site said that the sampling was not random or
intended to be representative of all toys on the market. The toys were
tested using a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device that uses x-ray
fluorescence spectrometry to detect chemicals like lead, cadmium,
chlorine, arsenic, mercury, tin, and antimony.

The study found lead in 20% of the toys tested. In 3.5% of the toys,
or 54 items, levels of lead exceeded the federal recall level for
paint, 600 parts-per-million.

Also according to the study, children’s jewelry is 5 times more
likely to contain lead above the toxic 600 ppm-level than other toys.
In particular, the report mentioned that several Hannah Montana brand
jewelry items tested high for lead.

Naturally, the toy industry is refuting the report, calling it
‘misleading’ and saying that toys are a “highly regulated industry that
has been subject to intense scrutiny”. But, the thing is, toy
manufacturers only meet very low minimum standards set by the
government.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is putting new regulations in
place for toy safety – but not in time for the Christmas buying season.
That means that although, come February, many of the toys currently on
the shelves will become illegal due to high levels of dangerous
contaminants, thousands of those toys will already be in homes across
the country.

Shop safe for your kids this holiday season – check out HealthyToys.org,
the consumer guide to toxic chemicals in toys. It has toy rankings
including best toys and worst toys – and you can search by brand.

And, The Daily Green has a list of toys that have recently been recalled due to lead.

Link [CNN Money] + [Healthy Toys]