PSA: I found lead in kids' toy

[PaulL]

One of my students brought this to my training class from his home. It contains a high amount of lead (well over 600 ppm). It's the MEGA BLOKS brand and it looks just like a small Lego brick. I would suggest checking your kids' toys and removing anything from this company just to be safe. Little kids chew on these things, and they're the most at risk for lead exposure. Err on the side of caution.

Again, this is not some re-post spam crap. I tested it myself and am posting it here FYI.

ETA: The color is orange if for some reason you can't see it. A color-blind guy just reminded me of that little detail...


http://f.cl.ly/items/3K022y2D0G2Q2M2B2V10/_LP12604.jpg

[deuce9166]

Wow, my kids have a bunch of mega bloks.

[rushca01]

I did a quick search and found this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/business/worldbusiness/19iht-toys.1.7958102.html

My 2 year old has a whole bag of these....

[PaulL]

We're using X-ray fluorescence to see the lead. Usually we just look at metal alloys, but I use the lead testing to illustrate some of the features of the instrument for my class. In plastic, we would be seeing what's on the surface, and probably some subsurface emission as well. Either way, it's a toy for kids and it has lead. It goes in the trash in my house (or will, as I don't currently have kids).

[Belmont31R]

Avoid chinese products....hard to do but if you have any regard for your health its worth it. They have some of the worst standards on earth and don't give two shits less what poisons are in their products. Maybe more Americans will care if hundred/thousands of kids started dying.



For block type things I know shit changes all the time, and even Lego has started some Chinese production but most of their stuff is still made in Europe. Duplo is the little kids brand with the bigger blocks. I get my 5 year olds regular legos but super glue them together as I make them for them. My dad did the same (super glue) because Id always be taking stuff apart. Good for fine motor skills and imagination.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Out of curiosity, did you test any of the other colors?

My guess is they are making the orange out of red and yellow, which also could have lead.

I read that Chinese consumers like western produced goods because they are seen as 'safer'.

It seems that some lots have and some lots don't. I was told by a plastics company in China that you know you have arrived in the market place when you start to see 'knock-offs' of your industrial products in the marketplace. Mega blocks could have spec'd and tested the blocks coming in and approved them and then someone put bogus raw materials into their system.

Mega blocks sounds like they are being a little coy with their 'extraction' test. The test run can always impact what the results are, but most government requirements have some kind of test standard specified.

[PaulL]

All he brought me was a green one and this orange one. The green one was clean. My past experience is that the red, yellow, and any combination of the two seem to be the worst. I've seen it in lots of black stuff, also. Think tires on little cars and trucks...

I've found lead in about 80% of the ceramic coffee mugs I've tested, too. If it says "Made in China" on it, you can bet it's got lead somewhere. Most of the time it's in the paint under the clear glaze, but it's in the actual ceramic itself quite a bit, too. Not much danger there, though. The bad ones are people's "favorite coffee mug" that has no glaze left inside (usually from lots of spoon action) and we see 5,000 ppm lead in the ceramic. :eek: If you're going to ingest some lead over a long period of time, this is a good way to do it. I got a 10,000 ppm reading on my wife's old boss' favorite ceramic soup bowl. That's freaking 1%. She'd been using it pretty much all her life, and her 2-year-old kid used it almost daily. They even had lead on the walls (either paint or drywall). I refuse to believe it's coincidence that the lady and the kid were both a little strange...