for my friends who have mentioned that their kids might be getting hannah montana stuff this year. PLEASE read!
does disney know about hannah montana's toxic lead jewelry? apparently, there is a charm bracelet out there that contains about 40% lead. oh i can't say i'm the least bit shocked. you wouldn't catch me buying any type of jewellery for a kid unless it was solid gold, silver or at least stainless steel. nonetheless,i figured i'd post this in case anyone's kids receive these lead-tainted gems for christmas. and a reminder that you can always check the safety your kids' toys at
www.healthytoys.org. there are thousands of toys in their database, and i have personally found a few things in our collection that are worrisome. very good resource, friends.
the text of the article:
If a company that markets to children, Disney for example, licenses its name to a toy manufacturer, (like F.A.F.), and the toy maker makes the toy in China, using lead or arsenic or melamine or bromine, should that company be held liable for the toxic effects on children?
I’m disturbed at the flagrant disregard of our children’s health by big business in favor of increasing revenue through any means necessary.
Let me explain.
I read about toxins in 1 out of 3 toys yesterday. So I went to HealthyToys.org to look a little closer at the findings of their toxic toy rankings. At the top of the list of examples of Worst Toys was a Hannah Montana necklace.
Made in (no surprise) China.
The toxin? Lead.
406,510 parts per million (ppm) of lead.
Is my math fuzzy, or doesn’t 400,000 ppm also mean 40%?
400,000 ppm is way over the toy industry’s voluntary standard of 90 ppm, and the U.S. regulations of 600 ppm for lead in toys.
Although no amount of lead is safe for children, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended a maximum of 40 ppm of lead in children’s products. - Healthy Toys
Since jewelry is usually worn next to the skin, does this mean that recipients of this Christmas gift also get a bonus of lead poisoning? Or does that bonus come later, when a kid or pet swallows it?
The survey by Healthy Toys found that one-third of the toys recently tested were found to contain medium to high levels of lead, arsenic, mercury, bromine, or cadmium. Only 21% of the toys they tested contained no harmful chemicals, but 20% had lead in them, some in excess of our federal recall standards for lead paint.
View the worst toy rankings at HealthyToys.org and make sure to inspect any gift your child gets for Christmas this year.
Part of the capitalist beauty of the corporation is that the shareholders basically have no liability or accountability for the end products of their ventures.
Their profit comes at the expense of our children’s lives…
How can we make these companies accountable for the products that have their names on them?
text from another article, from cbs' website (which, due to popups, i won't post the link for) is below.
Hannah Montana Toys Tainted With Lead?
Lab Says 9 Of 28 It Tested Had High Levels; Disney, Which Owns Montana Character, Denies It
(CBS) There are hundreds of Hannah Montana products on store shelves. Last year, their sales totaled about $100 million.
But, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes, they might not all be safe.
The Hannah Montana character is so popular, her TV show spawned a sold-out nationwide concert series and a movie.
It's no wonder Hannah Montana's face is on so much that "tween" girls own, from backpacks to purses to wallets.
But, like so many vinyl products made in China, some of these have been discovered to contain lead, according to Charles Margulis of the independent California lab, the Center for Environmental Health.
"We purchased 28 Hannah Montana products," he told Hughes, "and of those 28, nine had high levels of lead."
To see key parts of the lab's report, which names names of the products in question, click here [link not working].
The center, which has tested everything from lunch boxes to baby bibs, says it found that the paint and vinyl of five products lead levels higher than fededal standards permit, and four more exceeded the level The American Academy of Pediatrics has set for toys.
The center says a Girls Rock backpack from Walmart.com and a Secret Star wallet from Toys 'R Us had lead content of 1,800 parts per million-to-8,300 parts per million. The federal standard of safety for lead in paint is 600 parts per million.
Washington has set that level for lead for paint, but hasn't set one for toys. The American Academy of Pediatrics has set a standard for toys, and it's much lower than the government's lead-in-paint standard -- only 40 parts per million. Other experts say there's no safe level of lead for something a child might put in his or her mouth.
Offcials of Disney, which owns the Montana character, vehemently deny their products have high concentrations of lead, saying their tests show the products fall well below government standards.
But Margulis warns that, "Lead is toxic to teenagers, to young children, and even young adults, especially young women."
One-hundred-twelve toy products were recalled last year due to concerns about their lead content. While 19 states have laws banning the use of lead in packaging of children's products, only Illinois bans lead outright in those products.
The Consumer Products Safety Commission wouldn't comment for this story, and hasn't announced any recalls in this case.
A bill to beef up the CPSC is making its way through Congress. It could lead to an eventual ban on lead content in toys.
In the meantime, there's little a parent can do but watch for recalls or buy a home-testing kit. But such a kit will only show the presence of lead, not how much lead is on a toy or in its paint.