Toxic elements make children's toys and jewellery in North America unsafe

Children's toys and jewellery on general sale in North America contain unsafe levels of several toxic elements which can end up in the gastrointestinal system via oral contact. The contamination of toys and jewellery by elements like lead and cadmium is not unknown, having lead to a number of product recalls in recent years. But a new comprehensive study of 10 elements in a wide range of children's items has highlighted the extent of the problem.

The greatest concern surrounds metal toys and jewellery. Of 24 items examined, 20 contained at least one element which was higher than the official EU migration limit. This limit was adopted for comparison because it is more comprehensive than North American legislation and lists specific limits for different categories of toys.

The most abundant elements in order were copper, nickel, cadmium, lead, arsenic, antimony and chromium, but some individual toys had alarmingly high amounts of copper (71% by wt.), lead (65%) and cadmium (37%).

Plastic, brittle or pliable toys and those covered with paint or some type of coating were generally safe with concentrations well below the EU migration limit.

It's not just the presence of the elements that is worrying, it is also the fact that they can be absorbed into the body when children put them in their mouths. The same research team tested the bioaccessibility of several items. For one piece of jewellery, high levels of lead and cadmium would leach into the gastric and intestinal fluids.

The research team, based at École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada, were alarmed by their findings and made some strong demands. "It is recommended that total concentration limits are immediately imposed for highly toxic elements such as Pb, Cd, and As not only in children’s jewellery, but also in toys. In the meantime, since total metal content may not be an appropriate indicator of bioavailable metal, further research is recommended to determine oral bioaccessibility of metals (mainly Pb and Cd, followed by Cu, Ni, As, and Sb) in metallic toys and jewellery."