Libraries statewide recall lead-tainted toys

HILLSBOROUGH -- Thousands of bendable toys made their way into the hands and mouths of small children across North Carolina this summer through public library reading programs. Now those toys have been recalled for high levels of lead.

The State Library of North Carolina requested that local libraries recall 12,000 of the toys distributed across the state through the "Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales" summer reading program. The program is geared mainly to children 2 to 8 years old.

The lead is found in the accent paint, said Matt Mulder, director of Highsmith Publications, a school and library supply and publishing company in Wisconsin that sold the toys across the country.

"[For example] the dots on the Dalmatians, the white breast plates on the black cats," Mulder said.

Tests this summer found the toys contain at least four times the lead that federal regulations allow.

Several Wake County libraries were among the estimated 28 library systems statewide that purchased the toys for the summer reading program. Wake County received 768 toys and distributed nearly all of them.

"I hope parents return to the library, and we will give them something in return for their bendy toys so they don't leave empty-handed," said Carol Laing, Youth Services Manager for the Eastern Regional Library, which gave out 10 toys.

Eva Perry Regional Library in Apex is calling its summer reading program participants to properly dispose of 100 to 200 toys, Laing added.

In Orange County, library staff in Hillsborough spent hours Wednesday calling parents of the 460 children who had participated.

They asked parents to bring the toys back for discarding, or to double-bag them and throw them away out of sight of their children. Parents also were advised to wash hands thoroughly and to bring their children to their primary medical providers for lead screening.

The risk of lead poisoning is greatest in children younger than 6, health officials say.

Sue Rankin, a public health nurse for Orange County, said the risk could be real for some children who chewed the toys.

"The younger the child, the more likely they are to absorb it through their GI [gastrointestinal] tract. Also, if they're anemic they're more likely to absorb more lead more regularly. If they have calcium and iron in their diet, then they're less likely to absorb it," Rankin said.

"If you ate half of the toy at one sitting versus chewing on the toy off and on for a couple of weeks, you could get the same amount of lead," she said.

It will take parents about a week to get their test results.

Hillsborough mother Megan Clode learned of the recall Wednesday afternoon.

"I thought, 'Huh, I never would have suspected that that might have lead in it,'" Clode said. "Frankly, it never crossed my mind that toys have lead in it anymore."

Clode's sons, ages 5 and nearly 2, played with their bendable cats for a few days then lost them, she said.

Clode said she wasn't too concerned.

"They weren't a favorite toy. They weren't used much," she said.

Prizes

The toys were given as reading prizes for children who turned in a weekly log of what they read, and sometimes to younger siblings who came along to the library events.

The lead contamination, which was first picked up in Indiana, came as a surprise, said Brenda Stephens, Orange County library director.

"It's a reading prize," Stephens said. "My Lord, I wasn't expecting this."

Chatham County distributed only about three dozen toys, mostly in Pittsboro. The library did not have a contact list for the families that attended and put up posters around town Thursday.

The library won't be ordering painted toys in the future, said Debra Henzy, spokeswoman for Chatham County government.

"I think they're going to stick to things like books and maybe stuffed toys, but not anything that's painted," she said. "Bookmarks. There are some really funny bookmarks."

How it was discovered

Mulder said Highsmith Publications has not yet learned how the toy, manufactured in China, came to have lead paint.

The toys distributed by Highsmith are tested every year, and a batch of bendable toys passed a test in October, Mulder said.

A librarian who happened to have a bendable toy with her attended a lead content symposium this summer and offered the toy for a test, Mulder said.

Subsequent testing by the Indiana Board of Health and the company confirmed that the toy contained more than four times what federal regulations allow.