Items found to contain heavy metals

Found in some of the consumer products that were tested was lead, cadmium, antimony and other heavy metals.  The biggest offenders were purses, jewelry and ceramics, of which several of the items could be considered children’s products.  Children’s products are subject to regulations regarding the amount of lead that is permitted in the item.  The legal limit in total content that is permitted in a children’s products is 300 parts per million (PPM), unless it is a painted item, and, that amount of lead permitted is only 90 PPM. 

Essco Safety Check does not know who donated the items, when they were donated, if the items were purchased brand new and then brought immediately to the charity or if these items were purchased ten years ago and now just being donated.  Essco Safety Check has attempted to contact each manufacturer or importer of the items with information that was found about each product.  Of the findings, the readings are from X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzers which determine if the heavy metal is present and how much is present in total content.
 
Several name brand items were found to contain lead in including;

Several other purses were found to contain 1000s of PPM of lead, as well as a ceramic mug which appears to have lead in the glaze or ceramic at about 8400 PPM of lead which is 28 times over the legal limit for lead in a children’s product, this ceramic looked designed for a child.

Another example, one brand of jewelry tested appears to contain high quantities of lead in the metal.  In several pins, which according to the company’s compliance officer is not considered a child’s product, was last manufactured in 2005.  Since these products were manufactured before the Children’s Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was enacted, the law establishing limits of lead in children’s products, this product and other products are not subject to the regulations.  This creates a potential problem because these items are grandfather in.  This jewelry was found to contain lead in the metal ranging from 21.96% to 47.39% and antimony from 8084 PPM to 1.43%.  These are unacceptable amounts.  Even though the compliance officer said the pins were not designed or marketed to children, some people may think otherwise because of the packaging and design. In another piece of jewelry from the same distributor (again packaging appears to target children) was found with 4.69% of lead.

The pin found with 47.39% lead contains 1580 times the legal limit.

These results pose several questions:

1.  What are charities or thrift stores suppose to do to ensure the safety of the products that they donate or sell?  How do we let the public know that these products are not regulated the same as new products?
2.  How is the CPSC going to protect children from potentially harmful items if regulations are only applied to new purchases, yet some newly donated items, are in-fact several years old and thus grandfathered in the regulations?
3.  Why do we have different regulations for different products?  Children’s products, medical devices, ceramics, all have different regulations regarding heavy metals, unless they are designed and marketed to children. 

In discussions with the product manufacturers and importers Essco Safety Check found out that several of the products tested were in-fact several years old and no longer being manufactured.  These products appeared to look new and be in their original packaging.  All companies that Essco Safety Check spoke to were looking into these issues.

Just because there is something potentially harmful in your environment does not mean that it will harm you, however, if you know what is in your environment you can mitigate harm.

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Essco Safety Check has begun an annual tradition of giving back during the holiday season by providing FREE Holiday Toy Testing for Hopelink of Redmond. 

Essco Safety Check is donating our XRF Testing Services to Hopelink of Redmond by providing toy testing this holiday season.  We will be testing some of the toys they will be giving away (similar to Toys for Tots) for lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, antimony and other potentially harmful metals.  We simply wish to help out this holiday season by ensuring that the toys Hopelink of Redmond is giving away to children do not contain any potentially harmful metals.

Hopelink serves the homeless and low income families, children, seniors and people with disabilities. 

Hopelink is a non-profit corporation with 92% of all financial support going directly to help families in crises and preventing homelessness.

If you would like to donate to Hopelink, please visit http://www.hope-link.org/takeaction/volunteer

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I’m not going to comment on the “darkest months” in this blog, but I want to talk about my knowledge of autism and how I think it may be related to jaundice and specifically the function of the liver.

The liver is essentially the body’s filter. According to webmd.com

The liver’s main job is to filter the blood coming from the digestive tract, before passing it to the rest of the body. The liver also detoxifies chemicals and metabolizes drugs.

My knowledge or experience with autism is based on my business, Essco Safety Check, and our ability to enter an environment and help (in this case) parents with autistic children, know what is in their environment. Autistic parents appear to be very concerned about what potential toxicants may be present. Their children have health and behavioral issues; in each and every home with autistic children (that I have been to), the parents also inform me that their children have heavy metals in their blood. Not just one metal, but several, in one home I was shown the child’s blood metals lab report and 12 or 13 different metal were present, including; lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, antimony, tin, chromium, copper, and others.

With a device called an X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzer, we provide non-destructive testing of virtually anything in an environment (toys, ceramics, jewelry, housing, soil, etc) for heavy metals; lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, antimony, basically from 15-94 on the periodic chart.

Let me try putting the dots together.

I have been to dozens and dozens of homes with autistic children providing testing services and I hear the same story. First let me state that I’m not a doctor, but I feel like a researcher more and more.

1. All the parents of autistic children who have hired us to come to their home tell us that their children are autistic or have a similar condition.
2. All the parents of these autistic children tell us that their children have a variety of heavy metals in their blood.
3. When we provide testing of all the items in the child’s environment that they have a direct, routine relationship with (i.e. toys, ceramics, painted surfaces, vinyl objects, etc) we find the same heavy metals that the parents tell us are in their children’s blood.

My thoughts in developing my theory for three years are based on the fact that in 100% of the homes that I’ve been to with autistic children, we find these same three points, reoccurring in each and every home.

I believe that these children, autistic people in general, have a unique genetic pre-disposition to not be able to properly process metals and chemicals that we are all subjected to on a routine basis. And the constant exposure to these toxicants builds up in the body over time. If lead is present in a child’s blood, the lead can be causing potential health, intellectual and behavioral problems. If the lead is causing these problems, how can you properly treat autism? Wouldn’t you need to remove the harmful heavy metals from the child to properly treat autism?

Isn’t it possible that the lead in the child is actually masking the condition and thus any treatment without the removal of lead from the child’s blood will not work to its full potential?

Jaundice is a liver problem and the liver is the body’s filter, maybe the filter of an autistic person is simply not working properly.

I do not want to suggest that I think that heavy metals are the cause of autism, but as I have said, in each and every home that I’ve been to, to provide XRF testing for heavy metals, we hear the same story.

If constant exposure of heavy metals and chemicals are impacting everyone, the gradual buildup of these heavy metals and chemicals can occur within anyone, but more easily with people who’s “filter” is not working properly. This buildup of heavy metals can, in my opinion, potentially mask conditions of autism, making treatment harder, longer and less effective unless you remove the toxicants from the environment.

If you can remove potential toxicants from the environment of an autistic person, wouldn’t treatment be more effective?

Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm!

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Children playing in a bounce house

In August of 2010, a lawsuit was filed by the office of Attorney General Jerry Brown of California claiming that unsafe levels of lead were being found in bounce houses.  The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) in Oakland, California initiated the suit.  The CEH found levels of lead in the vinyl up to 2.9% or 29,000 parts per million (PPM).  The federal limit for lead in a children’s product is 90 PPM for painted surfaces or 300 PPM for non-painted surfaces.

Recently my company, Essco Safety Check, preformed X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing of vinyl samples of materials that bounce houses are made of, and like CEH, we found lead, however we also found fairly high levels of arsenic and antimony.  The lead levels were found with a high of approximately 11,000 PPM but overall percentages of lead found were lower than that of antimony and arsenic. Lead was found to contain more than 500 PPM in 16.2% of the samples, however, 500 PPM of arsenic was found in 24.3% of the samples and 500 PPM of antimony was found in 86.5% of the samples.

Here are some general numbers of the samples we tested.

Antimony found with more than 1000 PPM in 86.5% of the samples tested
Arsenic found with more than 1000 PPM in 21.6% of the samples tested
Lead found with more than 1000 PPM in 8.1% of the samples tested
Antimony found with more than 5000 PPM in 35.1% of the samples tested
Arsenic found with more than 5000 PPM in 13.5% of the samples tested
Lead found with more than 5000 PPM in 2.7% of the samples tested

I’m not exactly sure why arsenic would be found in the vinyl materials of bounce houses, potentially as a stabilizer in Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) production, however, antimony is potentially used as a fire retardant. 

The CPSC is currently attempting to decide what exactly is the definition of a children’s product, I’m not sure that a bounce home a children’s product.  I’m not even sure that the CPSC knows this answer.  In discussions with several people in the “know” about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), they are not sure if this is a child’s product.

However, in the vinyl materials that were tested, lead, arsenic and antimony were found.  Now I want to stress that all testing done was with an XRF analyzer which tests for total content.  Lead is the only element that has a total content standard within the CPSIA, antimony and arsenic (among other elements) have voluntary soluble standards according to ASTM F963.  The results shown are NOT a soluble reading, but total content. 

Now just because the samples we tested were found to contain lead, antimony and arsenic does not mean that all bounce houses have these elements.  However, the material PVC is known for its ability to leach heavy metals.  All the samples tested were made of PVC. 

In producing PVC a lot of Chlorine (Cl) is used (some estimates say that 40% of the worlds chlorine is used to make PVC) and of course there is Hydrogen (H).  If H & Cl combine, they form Hydrochloric Acid (HCl), to prevent this the PVC manufactures add stabilizers, sometimes they use heavy metals such as lead, or maybe in this case arsenic. 

In a study that Essco Safety Check did with a few local laboratories in 2008 & 2009 lead was detected in PVC material and subjected to a variety of conditions of heat.  Lead was found to accumulate on the surface and leach from the PVC material, the more heat, the more leaching.  I wonder if this could be happening in these materials.

We know that exposure to lead can cause a variety of mental and physical conditions including; learning disabilities, behavioral problems, seizures, coma and even death.

Bounce house

Picture the beautiful summer evening at your towns 4th of July celebration, its 90 degrees and you’re having fun.  Your children want to go play in the bounce houses, children love these activities.  You say go play, have fun, don’t hurt yourself.  Little did you know that the act of playing in these houses could be potentially harmful to your child, all because of what they are made of.

Knowing what is in your environment is important, especially to children and pregnant women. 

Know what’s in your environment and mitigate harm!

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Current regulations limit lead are total content found (90 Parts per Million (PPM) in painted surfaces, 300 PPM for all other children’s products, this will potentially decrease to 100 PPM in 2011).  Cadmium is not regulated like lead (the CPSC is working on new regulations for cadmium), and currently has a voluntary standard of 75 PPM, but is a soluble amount in the surface coating, not total amount like lead.

Cadmium is a carcinogen and can cause many different health problems.  Children are more susceptible to small doses of cadmium from toys and other consumer products, cadmium can potentially damage their developing organs.   Long-term exposure of cadmium, even at low levels can be harmful to anyone.

Earlier this year, McDonald’s recalled 12 million “Shrek Forever After 3D” drinking glasses.  Since June 30th 2010, over 200,000 pieces of children’s jewelry have been recalled for high levels of cadmium.  Consumer Reports has found cadmium in children’s jewelry, metal barrettes and vinyl children’s products, as well as finding lead in a variety of consumer items.

Consumer Products found with Cadmium

As a business owner who specializes in helping people and businesses “know what is in their environment” we at Essco Safety Check have found lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals in children’s products, ceramics, jewelry, housing and structures, tile, baby items, kitchen products and more.  For three years Essco Safety Check has been providing X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing services using hand-held XRF analyzers to provide knowledge about your environment.  We have provided testing for moms and dads, businesses, industries, governments and more. 

Essco Safety Check has been involved with several national recalls for both lead and cadmium.

Check out:

Lead and Cadmium found in Yellow Bumbo Seats

Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm!

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Their investigation found lead; in one bounce home that was more than 70 times greater than the legal limit of lead in a child’s product.  They found a lead from a range of 5000 parts per million (PPM) to 29,000 PPM.  The legal limit for lead in children’s products is 90 PPM for painted surfaces and 300 PPM for all other parts of the product.

With all the testing that Essco Safety Check has done, we have tested bounce homes in the past and our findings are very similar to that of CEHs.  The issue with bounce homes is the material that the home is made of.  It is typically made of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and PVC is a substrate that we have found to contain lead more than other typical substrates that children play with.  When PVC is manufactured, a stabilizer is added in production to prevent Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) from forming, unfortunately the manufacturers tend to use lead as a stabilizer.  This stabilizer does not bind well to the PVC molecule and can readily leach from the PVC material.

In some laboratory testing that Essco Safety Check has performed with several accredited laboratories in the Seattle, WA area, we have found that heat can play a factor in to the ability for lead to leach from PVC.  The hotter the temperature that the PVC is exposed to the more likelihood that leaching can occur.  The best thing for children to do after playing in a bounce home is to wash their hands and face, and avoid direct hands to mouth contact while playing in a bounce home.  This is more critical for children under the age of 6, as they are more susceptible to the exposure of lead.

Lead is a neurotoxin that can cause many problems including; learning disabilities, anemia, hypertension, infertility and death among other problems.  Children are more sensitive to lead exposure because of their size (mass) and greater absorption of lead.  It is best to avoid lead exposure as there is no level of lead that is considered safe.

Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm.

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Jubilee Farm - Autism Day of Washington 2010

The 10th Annual Autism Day of Washington was held on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at the Jubilee Farm in Carnation Washington. Autism Day is an event designed for families touched by autism a chance to relax in a beautiful setting surrounded by people and businesses who understand. A variety of individuals and companies, service providers and organizations wishing to reach out to the autistic community participated in the event.

Essco Safety Check participated for the third year in a row by providing FREE X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing to look for heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and others) in consumer products. As one mom explained to her autistic child, “they are looking for toxic toys.” We provided a display of products found in the typical home that have been tested and identified with lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury as well as information and publications from the EPA, HUD and Washington State Department of Health.

The rain could not stop hundreds of people from attending the event, going for hayrides, playing on the slip and slide or visiting all the vendor’s booths. Families brought toys, ceramics, jewelry and other consumer products by Essco Safety Check’s booth for XRF testing. Of all items that were tested, ceramics (coffee cups, plates and bowls) were found with the most amounts of lead and cadmium.

Hayrides and Spongebob during Autism Day of Washington 2010

By using technologies such as XRF Analyzers, we can help people and businesses gain knowledge about their environment. If you know what is in your environment, you can mitigate potential harm. Essco Safety Check has been providing in-home environmental testing services for almost three years. Autistic families appear to be more concerned about what is in their environment and have been contacting Essco Safety Check to know what is in their environment since January 2008.

As a service provider to families affected by autism, Essco Safety Check has found there to be a constant in each and every in-home inspection for an autistic family. You should know that these are just observations from our perspective of testing. Essco Safety Check inspectors are not doctors, but are certified lead inspectors and risk assessor.

Essco Safety Check's Booth at Autism Day of Washington 2010

In each and every case of providing testing services to autistic families, the parents of the autistic children tell us that their children have heavy metals in their blood. When they inform us what heavy metals are found in their child’s blood, when we provide XRF testing of the consumer products and objects and items these autistic children come in contact with, we find the same heavy metals in the products as is found in their blood.

I’m not suggesting that heavy metals are the cause of autism; however, I believe that a person with autism has a predisposition to not be able to process the heavy metals and chemicals we all come in contact with. Considering that we are all subjected to a variety of heavy metals in our daily life, until you remove the heavy metals that are affecting the autistic person, how can you effectively treat autism?

Essco Safety Check has developed a methodology of collecting and analyzing the personal environment using XRF Analyzers, photography and an environmental software platform. By understanding what is in your environment you can make educated decisions as to what you, your children, you customers or employees are exposed to.

Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm.

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Autism Day Washington 2009 booth

Autism Day is a free, fun-filled event designed for families touched by autism – a chance to relax in a beautiful setting surrounded by people who understand. Various individuals, companies, service providers and organizations wishing to reach out to the autism community provide free activities with our children in mind. The event is spread out with booths, an hour long slip-n-slide event, adaptive cycles and various food vendors.

Essco Safety Check is participating for the third year in a row and will be offering FREE XRF testing for heavy metals.

Bring your toys, ceramics, jewelry, favorite coffee cup, baby products, paint chip samples, yellow bumbo seats or anything you would like to have tested for heavy metals.   All testing is non-destructive and takes a few seconds to perform.

Please visit our booth on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 from 11:00 AM to 3:00PM for FREE Consumer Product Testing, to ask us any questions about heavy metals in your environment, to pickup special offers or simply learn more about Essco Safety Check.

Autism Day Washington Hayrides 2009

Enjoy the hayrides, farm animals, beautiful flowers, open spaces, camaraderie and free consumer product testing. See you down on the farm!

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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.

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Community Testing

Join us at Redmond Derby Days / IMPACT-Eco event this Saturday, July 10th, 2010 from 10:00AM to 6:00PM for FREE Consumer Product Testing.  Essco Safety Check will be providing FREE X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Testing for heavy metals; lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, antimony and more. 

Bring your toys, ceramics, jewelry, favorite coffee cup, baby products, paint chip samples, yellow bumbo seats or anything you would like to have tested for heavy metals.   All testing is non-destructive and takes a few seconds to perform.

Please visit our booth this Saturday, July 10th, 2010 from 10:00 AM to 6:00PM for FREE Consumer Product Testing, to ask us any questions about heavy metals in your environment, to pickup special offers or simply learn more about Essco Safety Check.

The Eco-Fair will feature:

Stay late for a fireworks spectacle at Redmond City Hall Campus at 10:00 PM

For more information about Redmond Derby Days and IMPACT / Eco-Fair, please visit

We look forward to seeing you this Saturday.

If you are unable to stop by this Saturday we will be participating in another community event in August at WA Autism Day at the Jubilee Farm in Carnation on August 7th from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM and providing free testing for all participants.

Know what is in your environment!

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