Better Give Them Coal

You'd be better off giving your children coal in their stockings this Christmas than toys. I know it sounds crazy but there is a 33% chance the toy you are giving to little Johnny or Suzy is toxic. You can thank Congress for delaying the start of new laws dealing with lead, mercury and other toxins in toys until after Christmas. Better a few million poisoned children than taking a chance on dulling the profits of their corporate masters, eh? Remember how good you felt putting that toy in the charity box for the children...well, not so much.

One of every three toys tested in a study of 1,500 popular children's toys contained potentially harmful levels of lead, arsenic, mercury and other dangerous chemicals, according to findings released earlier this month by the Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based consumer safety organization.

On Feb. 10, 2009, a new federal law — the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act — will set new limits on the amount of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead and other potentially unsafe chemicals allowed in children's products. The new legal limit for cadmium in children's products will be 75 parts per million, arsenic will be 25 ppm, mercury will be 60 ppm and lead will be 600 ppm. Based on these limits and related safety standards limiting bromine levels to 1000 ppm, the Ecology Center generated its list of the year's "worst toys," which includes, but doesn't rank, the toys with highest levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury or bromide.

Here's the list of toxic toys . Merry Christmas!