Just Thinking Out Loud’s Matthew Stewart posted an interesting piece today calling for a “lead-free” Christmas.  He happily pointed toward his Pennsylvania neighbors at Holgate Toys, who have been making toys in the U.S. for 200 years, including the very famous trolley train that rolls through Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood every day.  Matt suggested that Americans buy domestic this year, and help avoid unsafe lead products.

  Matt isn’t the only person concerned about lead-tainted products during this shopping season, though.  News reports have offered ongoing coverage of consumer concern over the safety of the toys and goods they’re buying for their families.

This raises an interesting point: if there’s now a heightened awareness of unsafe imports, what about all the cheap goods and toys that consumers have purchased in recent years?  Who can say if those items were lead-free?

For help on that, parents can turn to a free service being offered by the United Steelworkers.  USW recently launched ‘Get the Lead Out,’ an educational program that provides free lead testing kits and screening information to identify potential hazards in the home.  Parents can request a lead testing kit via their website.
 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 1:39 am and is filed under Holding China Accountable, Health Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.