Nov 13, 2007 10:45 pm US/Eastern
Vinyl Plastic Backpacks, Ponchos May Have Lead
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) ―
We've been hearing a lot about lead in paint. Now a new problem has been discovered with vinyl used in children's products.
The Center for Environmental health tested a variety of products made with vinyl and found lead in backpacks and rain ponchos sold at Target and Toys R Us.
"In the U.S. we make vinyl almost always with tin, which is not so toxic." said Michael Green of the center. "But frequently when it's made in other countries it's made with lead or cadmium which are very, highly toxic metals."
All of the items with lead were all made in China and carry popular franchise characters:
Dora the Explorer Go Diego Go, Disney's "High School Musical", Thomas and Friends, & Hello Kitty's Chococat.
"The (Dora backpack) has ten times the legal limit for lead in paint," Green said. "Some of these others have twenty times or twenty-five times the legal limit for lead in paint."
A Coleman brand youth poncho contains even more lead.
"Now that we notified them (Target & Toys R Us) we are confident they're going to pull them of the shelves and then the next situation unfortunately is where we're going to figure out the next product that has this," Green said. "This is going to keep going on and on until the federal government actually takes some action on this issue."
The problem with lead in vinyl is that it is harder to test for it.
Over-the-counter kits are made for finding lead on painted surfaces and often don't detect lead in vinyl.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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