Even before the recent flurry of children’s toy recalls, I
questioned the effectiveness of the Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CPSC) when they failed to act on the presence of
lead in children’s lunchboxes. The news has only gotten worse,
since I wrote about it last February. Almost everyday, I receive
a new email from the CPSC listing more toy recalls, mostly for
lead content. How can this be? Who is protecting our youngest
consumers? In the past two months, there have been millions of
toys recalled for dangerous levels of lead content, and other
products that contain smaller levels of lead, such as
lunchboxes, have not been recalled. In fact, doctors warn that
lead levels considered safe by the CPSC still put children at
risk. According to WebMD, Lead poisoning interferes with neural
development in children and developing fetuses. High levels of
lead in children can cause learning and behavior problems. The
CDC considers lead levels in the blood above 10 micrograms of
lead per deciliter of blood to be a