Lead Hazards & Some Perspective

As I mentioned in my last post, we will still be open on February 10. We are in the process of researching all our current stock, new and used, to ensure they are in compliance. While all textiles have proven to be lead free (see this video of the CPSC's meeting with the Apparel Industry), all adornments are can be suspect. The most common offenders are rhinestones and other "bling", but zippers, buttons, and snaps have also occassionally failed.

Without an XRF analyzer (an item that costs around $30-50,000), there is no way to test these items in products already on the market. At Enkore Kids, we will be monitoring the CPSC's website for information on recalls as well as the National Association of Resellers & Thriftshops for information on unofficial tests. We obviously cannot ban all clothing with buttons, zippers, and snaps, but we will be pro-active in eliminating the "bling" that has failed most often.

For the rest, it'll be good practice to have your children refrain from sucking on their zipper-pulls or other adornments on their clothing.

To gain some perspective, however, read this article from the FDA on lead. It states that the number one source of ingested lead continues to be paint from older homes and from solder in water pipes, also from older homes. According to one source, a child would have to eat all the paint off of 26 of the recalled Thomas the Trains to equal the amount of lead in a week's worth of ingested water that goes through lead-soldered pipes.

While their is no "safe" amount of lead, calcium in a child's diet can reduce the amount of lead actually absorbed. Lead can be inhaled and ingested, but it is not absorbed through the skin.