Families have toys tested for toxins
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Families have toys tested for toxins
Families have toys tested for toxins
Participating parents welcome the opportunity for their kids' playthings to receive a safety check.
By BETH QUIMBY
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
Seventeen-month-old Jackson Cleveland looked anxiously from his mother's arms as one of his favorite toys, a little yellow school bus, was tested for lead and other toxic chemicals.
It was not good news when the test showed that the toy contained bromine, a chemical that isn't allowed in European toys, and levels of lead exceeding those recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"It is nerve-wracking. I guess it's going to have to be thrown away," said Jackson's mother, Patience Cleveland of Falmouth.
The Clevelands and other families showed up at the Children's Museum of Maine on Wednesday to have their toys tested by the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, a coalition of groups that supports government regulation of toxic chemicals in toys.
The event was held to publicize the launch of an online list of 1,200 children's products that have been tested by a national environmental coalition, led by the Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, Mich.
The tests showed that 35 percent contain lead, 47 percent are made with chemicals that likely contain hormone-disrupting phthalates, and 3 percent contain cadmium, a toxic metal, according to the coalition.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=153163&ac=PHnws

Jack Milton/Staff Photographer
Participating parents welcome the opportunity for their kids' playthings to receive a safety check.
By BETH QUIMBY
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
Seventeen-month-old Jackson Cleveland looked anxiously from his mother's arms as one of his favorite toys, a little yellow school bus, was tested for lead and other toxic chemicals.
It was not good news when the test showed that the toy contained bromine, a chemical that isn't allowed in European toys, and levels of lead exceeding those recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"It is nerve-wracking. I guess it's going to have to be thrown away," said Jackson's mother, Patience Cleveland of Falmouth.
The Clevelands and other families showed up at the Children's Museum of Maine on Wednesday to have their toys tested by the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, a coalition of groups that supports government regulation of toxic chemicals in toys.
The event was held to publicize the launch of an online list of 1,200 children's products that have been tested by a national environmental coalition, led by the Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, Mich.
The tests showed that 35 percent contain lead, 47 percent are made with chemicals that likely contain hormone-disrupting phthalates, and 3 percent contain cadmium, a toxic metal, according to the coalition.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=153163&ac=PHnws

Jack Milton/Staff Photographer








