On Tuesday, Healthystuff.org released the results of their 2009 testing of thousands of toys on store shelves for dangerous chemicals. While the report does suggest that the toy industry has made some progress in reducing the percentage of toys with some dangerous chemicals like lead, the report shows that contamination continues to be widespread and suggests that consumers should do more checking to see if specific items have been found to contain dangerous amounts of certain chemicals

 

According to HealthyStuff.org, along with their partners at the Ecology Center and other non-profit citizen advocacy and environmental health organizations, this year they tested 700 toys and children's products. This data has been added to their database of toys and products tested since 2007 which now contains more than 4,000 items and is available for searching by consumers.

 

With respect to specific chemicals, although the testing indicated that the percentage of toys with some specific dangerous chemicals was lower than in years past (e.g. toys with dangerous lead levels), a large number of products continue to contain dangerous chemicals. Specifically, their testing revealed that 32% of toys tested contained lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and/or bromine and 42% contained polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic – a substance which often contains other dangerous chemicals like lead, mercury and phthalates.

 

Some of the products found to contain dangerous levels of lead and/or other chemicals included: Barbie Bike Flair Accessory Kit, Dora the Explorer Activity Tote, Kids Poncho from WalMart, MSY Shoes by Faded Glory, Reversible Croco Belt by Cherokee and The Kids Source Magenta/Orange Open-toed shoes. A complete listing of products tested can be found on the HealthyStuff.org website which includes a database where parents can search by product name for information about chemical testing and content.

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