EPA Responds to Legal Pressure to Monitor Lead in Children's Toys

By Mary Mitchell

Published on April 16, 2007

The EPA settled the Sierra Club action on April 13, agreeing to also tell the Consumer Product Safety Commission that information the EPA has already reviewed raises serious questions about the quality assurance measures used by companies that manufacture, distribute, and import children's jewelry and toys that may contain unsafe levels of lead.

Lead poisoning has caused severe nerve and brain damage in children. Lead emissions from gasoline have fallen by more than 90 percent since lead was listed as an air pollutant in 1976, and many people are aware of the dangers of lead in paint in older homes. However, the levels of lead in some toys, especially cheap vending machine products, have continued to be found to be dangerously high. For example, in 2006 a four-year-old in Minneapolis died from lead poisoning after he swallowed part of a bracelet that Reebok International Ltd. was giving away with its children's shoes.

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