An Evaluation of Lead Contamination in Plastic Toys Collected from Day Care Centers in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, USA.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2010

Publication Title

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination & Toxicology

Volume

85

Issue

4

First page number:

363

Last page number:

366

Abstract

Childhood exposure to environmental lead continues to be a major health concern. This study examined lead content within the plastic of children’s toys collected from licensed day care centers in the Las Vegas valley, Nevada. It was hypothesized that the use of lead as a plastics stabilizer would result in elevated lead (≥600 ppm) in polyvinyl chloride plastics (PVC) compared to non-PVC plastics. It was also hypothesized that, due to the use of lead chromate as a coloring agent, yellow toys would contain higher concentrations of lead (≥600 ppm) than toys of other colors. Toy samples were limited to those found in day care centers in Las Vegas, Nevada. 10 day care centers were visited and approximately 50 toy samples were taken from each center. Of the 535 toys tested, 29 contained lead in excess of 600 parts per million (ppm). Of those 29 toys, 20 were PVC and 17 were yellow. Both of the two hypotheses were strongly supported by the data.

Keywords

Contamination; Day care centers; Lead; Lead—Toxicology; Nevada – Las Vegas; Plastic toys; Polyvinyl chloride; Polyvinyl chloride—Toxicology; PVC; Toys

Disciplines

Community Health | Health Services Administration | Medicine and Health Sciences | Mental and Social Health | Public Health

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

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