Recalls Home Toy Lead Tests Unreliable, Says CPSC*

*UPDATE: A long-time reader pointed out that Consumer Reports found that three lead-testing kits actually worked pretty  well. Thingamababy has the details.

Three tests did a good job of finding surface lead: Homax Lead Check, Lead Check Household Lead Test Kit and Lead Inspector. The first kit even did a good job explaining that parents need to chip the surface level to test the paint below. Thingamababy has a great post on how to use one of these lead tests.

Plus, Thingamababy speculates here as to why the Consumer Product Safety Commission would claim these tests don't work.

Below is my original post:

For months I had this great idea that I would videotape myself testing toys for lead content and stand triumphant with contaminated swords, cars and plates. In fact, I had my wife tape me and the kids doing just that.

Oddly, I didn’t feel comfortable with the test results so I never edited the video. While I was half expecting a ton of false positives, I certainly was surprised by every toy coming up negative. I was worried that on many suspect toys, the paint was covered with some sort of urethane or coating.

I figured it might be wise to scrape paint off in a second go-around or to try another brand of lead tests, but I never got around to it. If I scraped off the coating, I would be exposing the possibly contaminated paint as well as ruining the toy.

Perhaps procrastinating saved me money in the long run. Why? None of the consumer lead testing kits checked by the Consumer Product Safety Commission were found reliable:

Many of the tests performed using the kits did not detect lead when it was there (false negatives); some indicated lead was present when it was not (false positives). Of 104 total test results, more than half (56) were false negatives, and two were false positives. None of the kits consistently detected lead in products if the lead was covered with a non-leaded coating. Based on the study, consumers should not use lead test kits to evaluate consumer products for potential lead hazards.

The CPSC tested two common types of lead kits that use rhodizonate ion or sulfide ion to create chemical reactions. Unfortunately, many of these test kits were made for wall paint, which as I recently learned can legally have much higher lead levels than toys. Toy paint must contain less than 0.06 percent lead, reports the CPSC.

False positives can be a nuisance. If a plastic car erroneously tests positive, the worst that happens is little Stevie gets really mad at you for taking away his cherished suck toy. And then mom and dad have to decide if they want to go through the hassle of contacting the manufacturer.

False positives also can create a lot of unnecessary fear. Amazingly, none of the toys that tested positive with a home kit and brought to the CPSC had lead in them, the agency says.

More worrisome are those false negatives – that is, the kits missed half the toys that DID have lead in them. Imagine mom or dad might giving a dangerous block back to Susie to suck on only to discover the truth later?

There’s one aspect to the CPSC posting that really bothers me, though: The agency doesn’t tell us which products it tested. Why can’t the nation’s consumer watchdog tell us which brands don’t work? It truly reveals how weak the agency is.

Another kind of lead test, x-ray fluorescence, did much better, according to the CPSC, but the technology is expensive and requires training. And the method doesn’t always work if that pesky coating masks the lead paint underneath. In other words, this test doesn’t help parents much either.

What does all this mean? It seems parents are horribly dependent on toy makers to come clean on whether there is lead paint in their products. The government seems mostly helpless because of weak laws and inadequate funding.

Perhaps that will change with the next presidential administration, but for the moment our choices are to make good guesses when buying toys or toss them all out. Neither method really works for me.

Comments

[spa soil screening]

HI,With all of the recent toy recalls and worries about lead poisoning, some parents have considered the possibility of testing their child's toys for lead themselves.Testing by a qualified laboratory and trained personnel is the only way to accurately assess the potential risk posed by a consumer product that may contain lead.

[tin whiskers]

Hi,
Consumers should exercise caution when using these test kits to evaluate consumer products for potential lead exposures. False results can make it difficult or impossible for consumers to determine the proper course of action to take.