Metals Contamination and Leaching Potential in Plastic Toys Bought on the Beijing Market

Abstract

Plastic toys may contain metals, to which children may be exposed via mouthing, ingestion or dermal contact with those items. The objectives of this research were (1) to determine total concentrations of Pb, Cr, As, Cu, Ni, Ba, Cd, Sb in plastic toys (n=35) bought on the Beijing market, and (2) to estimate leaching potential of the eight metals in selected items (n=3) in dilute HCl and the Pb leaching property via different in vitro tests. Seven of the fore-mentioned toxic metals were detected in all of the tested samples while all samples were Cd-free. For total Pb content, 7 of the 35 samples (20%) exceeded the US regulatory total limit (100 mg/kg for total Pb). However, dilute HCl leaching tests show that all the tested samples meet the migration limit of Chinese toy safety standard (90 mg/kg for dilute-HCL extractable Pb). Some samples contained Cr and As which exceeded the China migration limits. In vitro leaching tests demonstrated that Pb was more leachable in other stimulated body fluids than that in dilute HCl. Our results revealed that China need to update its toy safety standard as soon as possible.