Face to Face with Toy Safety: Understanding an Unexpected Threat

Focus | Face to Face with Toy Safety Lushpix U ntil March 2007, thousands of kids around the country could be found playing with toy trucks, helicopters, and soldiers sold under the Elite Operations brand name.The toys were fun, and they looked great with their thick coat of glossy paint.Trouble was, that paint was loaded with 5,000 ppm lead, a potent developmental neurotoxicant with no known safe exposure level.When the high lead levels were detected during a routine inspection, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a recall, the first for a leadcontaminated toy in 2007.Lead-triggered toy recalls were rare, but not unheard of in the United States, with just a handful issued in the last decade.Eventually, nearly 130,000 Elite Operations units-made by a Hong Kong company called Toy Century Industrial and imported by Toys R Us-would be recalled.