Lead in Toys: Mrs. Cooney Worries

Lead in Toys: Mrs. Cooney Worries

Lead in Toys: Mrs. Cooney Worries
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 6 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.17

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		cookware, marketplace, poisonous, representative, hearing, reading, suspect, solution, costly, testing, pollutant, cork, personally, immediately, discount, exposure
	content words:		America Inc, Character-Themed Lapel Pins, When Mrs, Consumer Product Safety Commission, United States, Product Safety Commission, Toy Safety Seminar, Product Safety

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Lead in Toys: Mrs. Cooney Worries
By Jennifer Kenny

¹     Caption: Nintendo of America Inc. recalled about 71,000 Character-Themed Lapel Pins in 2007 after discovering that paint on the pins contained high levels of lead.

²     Mrs. Cooney is a children's librarian. She works at the local library right in town. Her job consists of many different activities. She creates art projects for the little ones. She coordinates movie nights. She reads during story hours. She's been known to put on a puppet show or two. She even runs summer reading programs. She enjoys her job which allows her to work with children.

³     Last summer children in the summer reading program earned a prize each time they read a certain number of books in a week. One of the prizes was a bendable animal like a cat or dog. When Mrs. Cooney came to work this morning, she checked her email like always. She was so upset as she read the first message. Those prizes that she had distributed had been recalled.

⁴     Why were the prizes recalled? They had high levels of lead content in them. What is a recall? It's a notice that something is wrong with an item. It can be a toy, a food, or even a car that has been recalled. There have been recalls because of problems with pet food, contaminated meat, and even infection-causing contact lens solution. Sometimes the item can be fixed; sometimes it should never be used again. It just depends on what the problem is. Often the problem is a danger to people

⁵     The bendable toys were recalled because of their lead content. What's the problem with too much lead in a toy? If lead gets inside the body, it is poisonous. Lead poisoning can be very dangerous, especially to young children. Taking lead into the body can impair intelligence, slow down motor development, harm memory, and cause hearing and balance problems. It can cause severe nerve damage. In some cases, it can cause hyperactivity. The lead can't be seen with just the human eye. It also has no smell. Therefore, a child, especially a young one, may put the toy in his or her mouth, without the child or parent realizing it contains a dangerous level of lead. Over a long time, the lead builds up in the body. Symptoms of lead poisoning take a while to become noticeable. A blood test can be performed to show lead content. Sometimes, after a period of time, a child may seem weak or colicky. Sometimes a child may be constipated or won't be able to move the wrists or ankles. These are all signs of lead poisoning that's gone on for quite some time. Some of these problems are irreversible.

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Extended Activities:

1.  Make a list of symptoms of lead poisoning. Find out what the treatment is.

2.  Research a list of 10 recalled items. What was the reasoning behind each recall?

3.  Find out what "green" toys are. Give an example of one in picture form.

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