Lead and Other Dangerous Chemicals Found in Some Toys: What to Watch Out for When Shopping this Holiday

Many of us have children that we will be buying toys for this holiday season whether it is a son, daughter, niece, nephew, grandchild or a friend's child you will probably be buying at least one toy for a child this year.  So much though goes into finding the perfect toy for the child you are getting a holiday gift for but one thing that not many people think of because it is supposed to not be a worry and be taken care of before it even gets into a store for you to purchase is high lead levels and other dangerous chemicals in toys. 

Over the decades lead in toys and another dangerous chemical known as phthalates have been found have raised huge concerns among parent and health officials.  Lead poisoning and phthalate poisoning are very serious conditions, especially for children, poisoning from these things can even cause death in certain situations.  Perhaps the thing that angers officials and parents the most is that high levels of lead should not be present in toys becuase there is no need for them to be there and high levels of unnecessary lead are not expected to be present inside of toys because of laws and guidelines that are in effect so that no one does get lead poisoning.  Earlier this year the legal amount of lead that is allowed to be present in toys was lowered and fines that are in place for companies not abiding by the new laws are now being charged a larger fine for manufacturing toys with high levels of lead. 

New laws that were created led many parents and officials to believe that the number of manufacturers that make toys with high levels of lead would decrease - which they did - but there are still some companies who are manufacturing products with high levels of lead that are "slipping through the cracks".  MSNBC reports that so far this year there have been 15 toys recalled due to excessive lead levels compared to the 85 last year.  But with the holidays approaching there have been quite a few toys that have been recalled recently. 

Among these toys recalled was the following (keep in mind the legal limit for lead in childrens' toys is .03 percent by weight):

• A cloth book called "Big Rex and Friends" sold at Toys R Us which was tested and found to contain .19 percent lead. 
  
• A charm sold at Claire's Boutique which contained 71 percent lead
  
• Pretty Princess Puppy Purse also sold at Claire's Boutique contained a phthalate level of 5.4% (phthalates are banned from toys)
• A Elmo Lunch Bag by Fast Forward New York was also recalled for high phthalate levels of 7.2%. 
  

There is no real way to pick up a toy and decide if it has lead or phthalates in it or not rather the product must be sent off to a testing site to be examined and there it is determined if the product contains high levels of lead or phthalates.  In order to make sure you don't own or end up purchasing a toy or other product with high lead levels or that contains phthalates you will have to follow childrens product recalls.  These recalls can be found at the Consumer Product Safety Commission website.
If your child has already been affected by a product that contains dangerous levels of lead or phthalates and your child suffers from medical conditions including those affecting the heart, kidneys, bones, intestines, reproductive system or the nervous system you can contact a child injury lawyer to start a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the product which contained high levels of lead or phthalates.  If you live in New York or New Jersey you can contact Frank J. Dito Staten Island New York child injury lawyer and product liability attorney regarding your legal matter at 718.979.4300 or 800.976.4904.