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Posts with tag lead paint

CPSC recalling tainted hillbilly teeth

Filed under: Recalls, Health

Just in case you were thinking about stuffing your mouth with anything Chinese that isn't General Tso's chicken -- Don't! Funtastic, a Texas-based novelty company, might have to re-brand itself under the name "Leadtastic," after it began to recall 26,000 fake hillbilly teeth that were manufactured in China.


I love how the packaging to the right works as both a sales pitch and a warning. Luckily these teeth are easily identifiable, just look for brown gums, yellow-colored teeth and a packaging number of 2657. Sorry, I don't think you can turn in Uncle Bubba's teeth as part of the recall effort.

I'm sure you have seen loads of darling children running around with a gob of misshapen plastic teeth in their mouths acting out scenes from Deliverance, but the fun has to end now. It seems lead in toys is an issue mainly because children might put them in their mouths and suffer from lead poisoning. You could argue that some items such as board games and piggy banks can contain as much lead as low-cost producers see fit since kids aren't likely to shove those items into their mouths. (Not that they won't try anyway). Somehow Funtastic missed this memo and for the last three years has been shipping lead-filled toys which are meant to be jammed into your kid's mouth.

You can get a refund on your lead dentures by contacting Leadtastic Funtastic.

No toys in the Easter baskets!

Filed under: Recalls

Just in time for Easter, new toy recalls have popped up, sufficiently scaring both parents and the Easter Bunny. I spoke with the Easter Bunny earlier today and he said he's really exasperated with the situation. After all the publicity about unsafe toys containing lead and detachable parts, he's confused about why toy companies aren't being more careful.

A group of college chemistry students in Ohio examined 45 toys, and found that lead paint was present on 13 of those toys. (That's almost one-third of them!) Obviously, the risk with these toys is that the lead paint could chip off and be ingested by kids.