Getting the lead out of our lives

	REFORMULATE  Many products that contain lead don’t need to. There are safer substitutes.

In the first issue of Consumers Union Reports,May 1936, we reported on the dangers of lead in toys.The good news:“The fear of many mothers that cheap toys, such as are found in the 5-and-10-cent stores, are painted with poisonous lead paints is probably groundless.” The bad news: The metal used to make the toy soldiers and airplanes we tested was loaded with lead.

Back then, despite mounting evidence of lead’s toxic effects, the danger was barely communicated to the public by the press or by government agencies. There’s no such silence now.We hear of lead-tainted products streaming onto the market every week, through toy recalls--millions of pieces in 2007 alone--and through congressional hearings about the probable causes and possible solutions to a problem that should have been resolved decades ago. But it wasn’t; our tests continue to find lead in children’s products and household items. (See New worries over lead.)

Lead was phased out of gasoline starting in 1973 and was cut from residential house paint in 1978, which over time has significantly reduced our exposure. Lead-laden paint on toys was also outlawed in 1978. So why do consumers still have to worry about products that should pose no threat?

While lawmakers, consumer groups, and industry wrestle with the complicated subject of imported goods, we believe that wherever products are made, the U.S. government must take the following steps:

Even if the government fails to act, manufacturers should take it upon themselves to eliminate lead in any product where its use is not essential.

I’m as dismayed as you are that we still face this health threat.The responsibility for lead safety is an obligation of government and industry that has been minimized for far too long. We’ll continue to work, as we have since 1936, toward a time when there’s no need to write articles about this danger.