by Patty Bates-Ballard

Created on: November 22, 2008   Last Updated: January 29, 2009

With all the attention on lead in toys after the seven Mattel/Fisher-Price recalls in 2007, you might have assumed the issue was resolved. Think again. From January through November 2008, there were more than 60 recalls of over a million products due to high lead content. The vast majority of these recalled products are children's products.

The latest were recalls of children's necklaces and toy xylophones. Earlier this year, The Children's Place pajamas, Bonne Belle cosmetic bags, Disney Tinkerbelle wands, Pirates of the Caribbean sleeping bags, Rawlings batting helmets, and children's brightly painted storage bins sold at Lowes were recalled because they violate the US lead paint standard.

Why should this register on your very full parent-radar? Just one instance of ingesting lead can permanently harm a child, potentially lowering his or her IQ and impulse control, among other things. Yet many children do not show obvious symptoms. If not identified by a blood test, lead poisoning can continue undetected for years.

But this summer, Congress passed a law that for the first time limits the amount of total lead that can be used in children's products, and that toughened standards on the amount of lead allowed in paint. So why do lead recalls continue? Chinese manufacturers as well as manufacturers in many other developing countries have used lead paint on wooden and plastic toys for years because it makes the paint last longer and it's inexpensive. Many continue to sidestep US protocols against the use of lead, putting profit above child safety. Current product inspections can't possibly catch every product that contains lead.

Since the new law doesn't even go into effect until February of 2009, it's too late to have new standards in place to affect toys being made for the 2008 Christmas season. So in the meantime, parents need to become ever-vigilant experts at minimizing the risk of lead poisoning to our children.

Vigilance means keeping up with lead related recalls of toys, children's jewelry, children's clothing and more by watching the news regularly and frequently checking the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recall announcements and product safety alerts. But since there is a recall every few days, something you already own could contain lead. So vigilance means keeping all toys out of children's mouths as much as humanly possible.

Vigilance also means avoiding toys, shower curtains, clothing etc. that have a strong chemical smell because they are probably

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