The more things change ...
The fear of many mothers that cheap toys, such as are found in the 5-and-10-cent stores, are painted with poisonous lead paints is probably groundless. Tests made by Consumers Union on a large number of toys purchased in Woolworth, Kress, and Kresge stores showed no lead in the paints used in any of these toys. The metals of which many small toys are made, however, are not equally innocent of hazard to young children.
Sound familiar? Other than the names of the merchants — and the fact that our testers didn't find lead paint on the children's toys they reviewed — the paragraph above could have been drawn from today's headlines. However, the statement actually appeared in the very first issue of Consumer Reports, published in May 1936.
Unfortunately, concerns about lead paint on toys that we were able to confidently dismiss over 70 years ago are real issues today, as illustrated by the recent recall of 1.5 million Thomas and Friends trains and accessories. And the other problem we raised in 1936 — that the metals used in toys could contain hazardous materials such as lead — remains a very serious matter. In the past two years alone, there have been over two dozen recalls involving over 160 million pieces children's jewelry due to lead poisoning risks. In 2006, a 4-year-old boy died of lead poisoning after swallowing one such piece of jewelry.
Some products we tracked in our early years, like vacuum-tube radios and detachable shirt collars, have long since been relegated to the dustbin of history. Unfortunately, lead in products made for children remains as much an issue today as it did nearly three-quarters of a century ago.
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