Reporter's notes: Playing with Lead – Part 1

Andrea Kissack Post on Aug 07, 2009 by
Topics: Biology, Environment, Health, Radio

The paint on this piggy bank tested for lead at 7253 parts per million (ppm); that is 11 times higher than the legal limit for lead paint. By Oanh Ha, Globalization Reporter for The California Report.

Editor's Note: This week we have the first of two special reports on lead.

As a parent, there is a lot to worry about when it comes to the safety of my kids. Lead wasn't high on my list. Lead poisoning in children has dropped significantly in recent decades since the ban on lead-based paint in homes and the phase-out of leaded gasoline. Then came the record toy recalls of 2007, where millions of imported items coated in lead paint and made by household names like Mattel and Fisher Price violated the 30-year-old lead law.

Suddenly, parents, including me, eyed the toys in our homes and on store shelves with suspicion. Extensive research links lead exposure in children to lower IQ scores, neurological and behavioral problems, even anemia.

The toy recalls prompted congress to pass the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

The Act not only lowers limits for lead and bans certain kinds of phthalates–it makes manufacturers and distributors accountable for products sold to American consumers by requiring items to be certified by third-party labs. But the testing, or certification piece of the Act, was postponed for a year. That raised a lot of questions for me as a reporter and as a parent.

I contacted the Center for Environmental Health, which researches lead, and other toxics, in consumer items and has sued manufacturers and distributors for violating standards.

CEH and KQED were interested in looking at what's sold at discount chains and 99 cent stores because of the history of previous recalls. CEH, through its regular spot testing, also thought that many of the larger retail outlets seem to have improved their process to weed out lead in children's items after the 2007 recalls.

I got some tips from CEH about potentially problematic products to look for. We purchased about 200 items and then CEH did the first round of testing using an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device. The XRF is a handy tool used by a lot of commercial lead inspectors. It shoots high-energy x-rays at the item and sends back a chemical analysis, including the lead content.

Most items that exceeded the lead limits (600 parts per million) set by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act using the XRF device were then sent to a federally-accredited lab, MACS in Hayward, for detailed testing. At the lab, the parts or components that exceeded the lead limits were cut or scraped off and dissolved in an acid solution. Then tests were run to determine the lead content.

View a slide show of several of the items that violate the new lead limits below. We've also put together a list of items that violate the new lead limits, along with the test results.

So how can parents keep leaded toys away from kids? In addition to avoiding vinyl products, stay away from metal jewelry.

If you can, choose natural wood toys instead of painted items, especially if they are in yellow. Check the recall list posted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Many companies sell home lead test kits for consumer products. They're not 100-percent reliable and can give false negatives-and false positives too. If you're really concerned about your child's lead level, the best thing to do is to get a blood lead test.

Listen to the Playing with Lead – Part 1 radio report online.


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  • Kate

    I really appreciate this report because I admit that I felt the media's previous coverage of this lead issue was probably overhyped alarmism. So this report from KQED really put me on a notice because it's coming from a source that I trust and know not to be sensational. I'll be reviewing my kids' toys. Thank you!

  • Erik

    I notice that none of the stores are named in this report. I wonder why that is. Obviously, we don't want to unfairly single out one business, but it seems like a great way to get immediate results for large chains.

  • Oanh Ha

    Hi Erik,
    this is Oanh Ha, the reporter on the lead stories. Thanks for your comment. In the report itself, we did name two of the largest chains, Ross and Marshalls, where we found items in violation of the lead limit. Ross is looking into pulling the item and Marshalls is investigating it. You can also take a look at the list of items we found that violate the lead limit, which also includes store names. That link is on the blog, click on "list of items that violate the new lead limit."

  • Deirdre Billes

    While a lead blood test may reveal recent exposure lead levels, if the child has been exposed to lead over a longer periods of time, heavy metals will settle in cells. I understand that a hair or Stool test is a better indicator of over heavy metal levels in the body. I have used heavy metal hair tests ordered from the Great plains laboratory. It is a simple test that anyone can do quickly and painlessly.

  • Jo Rhodes

    There are many different tests that can be done to determine if there is lead or other heavy metals in the body, including testing urine or hair. However, at this time, only a blood test is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an indicator of unsafe levels of lead. The action level is 10 ug/dL of lead in the blood. At present, I am unaware of any guidance regarding the how much lead found in urine, hair, etc. is considered lead poisoning or the correlation between levels in the hair, urine, etc. to levels in the blood.