The Ecology Center, a Michigan-based nonprofit organization, today released the results of their testing of 1,200 popular children’s toys for toxic chemicals at www.HealthyToys.org. Of the 1200 toys they tested over a third were positive for lead.
From the Healthy Toys website:
Seventeen percent (17%) of the products had levels above the 600 ppm. The federal recall standard for lead paint is 600 ppm. The testing detected more than 6,700 ppm in Dollar Store animal figurines; 3,056 ppm in a Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Pack; and 1,700 ppm lead in a pair of Circo baby shoes.
Do you find those numbers frightening? I did. And here I thought I couldn’t be surprised any longer.
Every year I bring my children to the dollar store, where armed with their dollars they buy each other Christmas presents. They look forward to this during the holidays and have already asked when we are going to draw names. This year I am not sure what I am going to do. The idea of going into a store filed with cheap, most likely contaminated, toys is not at all appealing.
On the other hand they look forward to it so much.
But the lead.
I can’t really give then free reign in a regular toy store.
But the lead.
I am trying to think up exciting alternatives for them, but thus far have drawn a blank. I am going to have to break it to them soon that the dollar store isn’t in our future. It would be nice to have something else in mind as a replacement when I bring it up. To quell the rending of clothing and gnashing of teeth.
Oh man… it is often said by proponents of fair trade and good labour practices that if something is too cheap, the cost is being paid in other ways or by other people. Seems like that principle is really coming to light with the avalanche of recalls. Not only is the cost being paid by the disadvantaged workers, we now realize that it is being paid by kids exposed to health hazards through their toys!
Maybe the kids could create coupons for each other? For things like spending an hour playing someone’s favourite game with them, or doing someone’s chores, or the older kids reading X number of stories to the littlest ones….
I’ll be interested in hearing what solution you come up with.
Comment by mel — December 6, 2007 @ 8:40 am
I read this thing in Family Fun magazine a while back where a family of 5 chose to do secret pals among the family. Each day, a person had to do something nice for his secret pal. Or they could make a small gift. Things like doing someone’s chores, drawing pictures, making a favorite food were all done. And sometimes, people helped each other out to disguise who their secret pal was. Just a thought. With your large family, this could really be a hoot. You could reveal on Christmas Day with a final gift.
Comment by Lucinda — December 6, 2007 @ 11:40 am
I know this isn’t as exciting but how about a trip to the grocery store? I never buy my kids boxes of sugary cereal crap so they think it’s a treat when Santa leaves a box next to their stocking.
Comment by Lazy Organizer — December 6, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
A friend recently told me about all the old school toys they have at Restoration Hardware (who knew!) Not a dollar each, but alot that in the $7-20 range, http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/category/category_w_4products.jsp?navSrc=leftNav&navAction=jump&navCount=0&categoryId=cat750002
Comment by Suzanne — December 6, 2007 @ 1:20 pm
Now…I might be in the minority here, BUT, from reading your blogs, it seems like you have made very mindful choices in all the rest of their presents. And this is something they all look forward to. And it’s just once a year. And the lead from previous years shopping in the Dollar Store hasn’t killed them off yet…you get where I’m going, right? Let them have their fun at the Dollar Store and let them be happy with their choices…their free reign of choices.
Comment by Anna — December 17, 2007 @ 1:04 am