My wife was sharing with me a story about somebody we know and was telling me how this person is asking that all the gifts that people give her child not be made in China. Given the volume of items made in China, that is an awesome challenge. My wife conveyed to me that she thought the request was kind of funny but, personally, I agree with this mother.

As I have posted here before, just because our government won’t acknowledge it, toy safety is a big concern. In recent news, we have seen story after story about toys manufactured in China containing lead paint. I even heard about a kids C.S.I. game that contained asbestos. As a parent, this bothers me greatly. A kid could inhale something or accidentally consume paint chips and, over time, develop some serious problems.

Recently, tests on more than 1,200 childrens’ products yielded some horrifying results. Researchers from 9 states, along with the national Center for Health, Environment and Justice encountered the following:

Tests on more than 1,200 children’s products, most of them still on store shelves, found that 35 percent contain lead — many with levels far above the federal recall standard used for lead paint.

A Hannah Montana card game case, a Go Diego Go! backpack and Circo brand shoes were among the items with excessive lead levels in the tests performed by a coalition of environmental health groups across the country.

Only 20 percent of the toys and other products had no trace of lead or harmful chemicals…

…Easthope said 17 percent of the children’s products tested had levels of lead above the 600 parts per million federal standard that would trigger a recall of lead paint. Jewelry products were the most likely to contain the high levels of lead, the center said, with 33.5 percent containing levels above 600 ppm. Among the toys that tested above that limit was a Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game, whose case tested at 3,056 ppm.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a level of 40 ppm of lead as the maximum that should be allowed in children’s products. Lead poisoning can cause irreversible learning disabilities and behavioral problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and even death.

This is something to think about as we purchase toys for our little ones this year.

UPDATE: You can find more information at www.healthytoys.org. Right now, the site seems to be experiencing high traffic so, you may not get in right away.

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