Redmond Derby Days is an annual event that is held in Redmond, Washington. Typically, Redmond Derby Days is filled with bicycle races, food, games and events for children, this year for the first time in the history of this event, the city included an Impact-Eco event. Local companies such as Puget Sound Energy, Cascade Water, the City of Redmond, Essco Safety Check and others shared in their environmental knowledge.
Essco Safety Check provided free X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing to anyone that wished to have their toys, ceramics, jewelry and other consumer products non-destructively tested for heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury. Of the estimated 10,000 people that attended Redmond Derby Day, several hundred visited Essco Safety Check’s booth.
Working the booth
In addition to just providing free XRF testing, Essco Safety Check provided a display of consumer products, that we have found over several years of providing testing, that have potentially harmful elements (lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury) in them. As well as, discussing these items, we provided insight into the “individual, the item and the relationship”; the relationship between people and their environment, and how knowledge of your environment can mitigate harm.
Toxic Toys
Essco Safety Check also displayed and handed out brochures and publications from the EPA, Washington State Department of Ecology, Washington State Department of Health and King County Hazardous Waste Management. We also spoke to several small business owners who are impacted by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and homeowners affected by EPAs Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule.
Overall, we provided free testing to many local residents and those that did not bring items to be tested but were still interested in having something tested, we provided a coupon for free testing at our offices. Of the items we did test for people, we found lead in jewelry warn by children, plates, coffee cups and other ceramics, in musical instruments, several toys and other consumer products. Several of these items were also found to contain cadmium. The highest amount of lead found was over 400,000 parts per million in some jewelry warn by a child.
Essco Safety Check is proud to provide free testing at community events. If you missed us yesterday and would like to have something tested for free, please join us Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at Washington Autism Day located a Jubilee Farm, in Carnation, WA from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM
If you have a yellow bumbo seat, we are still offering free testing at our offices, please contact us at info@essco-safetycheck.com and in the subject line, please write “Yellow Bumbo”
Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm.
