Dr. Landrigan on Lead in Toxic Toys (2 of 2)

Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai CEH Center
Friday, December 14, 2007

Recently covered in the news, massive recalls of toys and baby products have raised the concerns of parents everywhere. Dr. Philip J. Landrigan of Mount Sinai's Children's Environmental Health Center talks on lead in toys from China giving parents practical advice on how they can protect their children and themselves.

Lead in toys has become a major problem in the USA. Lead-painted trains, lead-painted dolls and lead-contaminated plastic lunch boxes imported from China and other nations have become a major new threat to the health of American children. This is a very serious issue. Tens of thousands of children have been placed at risk of lead exposure this year because of contaminated imports. Millions of toys have been recalled. This situation reflects the grave weakness of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the lack of federal controls on imported toys.awWhat can parents do? Most importantly, parents should avoid all painted toys this holiday season. Also they should avoid brightly colored plastic toys, because some of them have been shown to contain high levels of lead. Our recommended toys this year are:

• unpainted wooden toys
• sports equipment such as balls and gloves
• books

Parents should consider writing letters or sending emails to their Senators, Congressional representatives, state and local officials, and the White House to complain about the current situation. It is simply not right that this country should allow the entry of millions of dangerous toys in the weeks before the holidays.