One third of Chinese toys contain heavy metals!
HONG KONG, China - December 8, 2011 - Almost one in three toys in China contains heavy metals, with one in 10 containing excessive levels of lead, according to new research.
A wide range of toys and children’s products, including those sold by reputable brands contain either lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, antimony or chromium. All six heavy metals can cause permanent damage to a child’s nervous and immune systems.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that there is no safe threshold for lead exposure and that children, if possible, should never be in contact with it.
Researchers from Greenpeace and IPEN, which campaigns against chemical pollutants, bought 500 toys and children’s products in five Chinese cities in November, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
They tested them with hand-held X-ray scanners and found 163 (32.6%) of the toys were tainted. The highest reading, from a green toy ring, contained more than 1,200 times the amount of lead permitted under European safety standards.
"These contaminated toys not only poison children when chewed or touched, but can enter the body through the air they breathe," Ada Kong Cheuk-san, a Greenpeace campaigner, told a press conference in Hong Kong.
