Thursday, April 10, 2008

China Must Be Made of Lead Paint

I subscribed to the Department of Consumer Protection's mailing list for updates on recalled stuff to make sure we don't buy anything for ourselves or our baby that might fall apart or poison us. I am stunned because every single day I get an email about at least one, usually more children's toys that are recalled because of lead paint. And these things are always made in China. I know, just about everything is made in China. I was mad enough when pets all over were being killed by pet food containing poison from China. Now TOYS. With lead paint.
How long has the world known that lead is poisonous and deadly? Why hasn't China been given this news?
Gah! I am so furious.

How do you avoid buying things made in China? There must be websites devoted to safe products and toys out there. Any ideas?

3 comments:

saffry said...

There's two ways to approach this.You can buy lots of wood and cloth toys and things that are made in the US. And you can also get little testing kits that will tell you if there is lead in a toy.

This blog has a pretty good round-up on the issue.

Once you get past the "everything must go in my mouth" baby years, you can relax a little. I don't stress about all Nathan's Made in China stuff. But I also know that he gets regular lead tests from the doctor because of our old house, so we'd catch any problems quickly.

AllBeehive said...

Thanks for the info. I've signed up to get emails. I do know there are websites out there that deal with green toys. I don't have the link, but I'll look around and get it too you. I think Germany and Switzerland have a lot of handmade wood toys too.

painterjoy said...

Thank you! I have since done some very successful searches for green toys.
I love the look of the wooden rattles and toy cars, etc.