Lead in Children's Toys
Lead safety experts at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center suggest that it is difficult to quantify the risk related specifically to exposure to toys, such as those recalled recently by Fisher Price". However, if a young child has been frequently playing with a recalled toy or has put the toy in his or her mouth a lot, then the parents should discuss this with their child's physician. The physician may want to order a blood test to determine the child's lead level.
According to Cincinnati Children's researchers and clinicians, lead is a confirmed neurotoxin that can affect children's learning abilities and increase their risk for behavioral problems. While there is no established safe blood lead level, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) currently consider ≥10µg/dL as a level of concern. Recent studies by investigators in the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center confirm that there is no evidence of a threshold for the amount of lead ingested by a child; indeed, for a given increase in exposure, the largest decrements in cognitive abilities occur at blood lead levels considerably lower than 10µg/dL. Lead exposure also has been associated with dysfunctions in attention, delinquency, hearing deficits and balance deficits. Another recent study from Cincinnati Children's found that lead exposure, defined as having a blood lead level > 2µg/dL in 4- to 15-year-old children, accounted for 20 percent of ADHD in US children.
The Cincinnati Children's experts involved in pediatric research and clinical care surrounding lead are:
Adam Spanier, MD, MPH, a general pediatric faculty member who cares for patient in the Lead Clinic and Generalist Inpatient Service while pursuing research. His research goals are to understand how environmental and genetic risk factors interplay in asthma severity and to integrate this knowledge into the improved care for pediatric asthma and prevention of pediatric asthma.
Bruce P. Lanphear, MD, MPH, is Sloan Professor of Children's Environmental Health and Professor of Pediatrics who directs the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center. Dr. Lanphear is currently principal investigator for a study examining fetal and early childhood exposures to prevalent environmental neurotoxins including lead, pesticides, mercury, alcohol, PCB's and environmental tobacco smoke. A component of the study is the investigation of the contribution of residential hazards and residential injuries to children's health. This project recently received funding to follow the original birth cohort another five years, until the children are five years of age, allowing follow-up for determining the efficacy of lead hazard controls on children's blood lead levels and their risk for learning and behavioral problems. Dr. Lanphear has extensive experience conducting community-based trials, including lead poisoning prevention, epidemiology of asthma, prevention of exposure to tobacco smoke and measurement of lead and allergens in housing. He is a member of the U.S. EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Lead Review Panel and a Member of the National Children's Study Steering Committee.
