A study by Delhi-based Toxics Link has reported varying levels of lead and cadmium in non-branded soft toys collected at random from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.       
    
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and WHO has fixed 10 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood as the level of concern. In India, we have no such standards identified for children’s toys, besides some borrowed European standards. Even these are voluntary.

Senior programme officer at Toxics Link, Abhay Kumar says that  while many studies have been conducted on lead and its bad effects, there have been none looking at the sources of lead in a child’s environment.
The other aspect that prompted the study was that soft toys dominate the toy industry and no study had been done to look at their lead and cadmium contents.

The toys were tested at an accredited lab in the capital and 111, 77 of them were found to have poly vinyl chloride (PVC) content. Such  toys that use lead and cadmium as stabilisers to prevent the chlorine and hydrogen in the PVC from forming hydrochloric acid that then eats into the toy structure.

The Mumbai average for lead was as high as 278 ppm (parts per million). Five toys showed lead content as high as 878 to 2104 ppm. The US EPA limit is 600 ppm for lead in painted toys.

The study was reported in a recent issue of Current Science. Lead and cadmium are also used in pigments to give toys a bright colour, but they leach out easily. Besides, when a child chews on the toy, they are also released as dust on the toy surface. Cadmium can then combine with oxygen to form a carcinogen — cadmium oxide. “Yes, India does not have any standard. A standard which is not mandatory can not be called standard! As to the voluntary standard, not a single manufacturer has applied for this,” says Abhay Kumar.

Even the voluntary guidelines, he says, are not with respect to the total concentration of toxic metals present in toys but with respect to their “bio-availability”.

This is the amount of metals leached out from toys, if placed in a pre-described media, often mild acid. “The idea is to emulate the saliva conditions as metals leach out (or migrate) to come to the toy surfaces.” There is no agreement among the scientists about any correlations between the total concentration of heavy metals in toys and the amount which is leached out, he adds.

THREAT TO CHILDREN
Lead poisoning can permanently harm children, but not overnight. It does not cause symptoms until the level of lead in blood is very high. The major organ systems affected are the central nervous system, digestive and urinary systems.

A child’s rapidly developing brain is highly vulnerable to lead toxicity. A recent study showed that a decline in IQ can even be seen in children with blood lead concentrations below the ‘safe’ 10 mcg/dL level. Lead poisoning, even at levels that do not cause immediate symptoms, can permanently dam age kids’ brains.