The amount of Lead that is considered toxic (and illegal / unsafe) in newly manufactured items intended for use by children today, is anything over 90 ppm Lead in the paint or coating and anything over 100 ppm Lead in the substrate. Here’s a table from a recent (2015) study about toxicants found in vintage plastic toys. If you click on the table it will take you to a post with a link to the full study.
When tested with an XRF instrument this little doll had the following readings (tests done for a minimum of 30 seconds each, metals not detected in consumer goods mode are not listed).
Yellow Plastic Hair:
- Lead (Pb): 2,218 +/- 51 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 57 +/- 13 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): 14 +/- 9 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 99 +/- 33 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 437 +/- 71 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 93 +/- 11 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 705 +/- 288 ppm
Pink Plastic Face:
- Lead (Pb): 145 +/- 7 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 141 +/- 8 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): 21 +/- 4 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 270 +/- 73 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 3 +/- 2 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 9 +/- 6 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 28 +/- 12 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 2,693 +/- 205 ppm
Blue Plastic Body/Dress:
- Zinc (Zn): 226 +/- 15 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 33 +/- 20 ppm
These vintage Fisher Price Little People are more of a concern than some of the larger pieces (like houses and buses) because they can be easily popped in the mouth of a child during the course of normal play, and the faces are often painted with Lead paint, which can easily be ingested by a child. It just takes a microscopic amount of Lead to poison a child. You can read more about that here.
Of particular note on this doll specifically is how chewed her hair is. I tried to capture it in the photo, but her hair is FULL of baby teeth marks!
To see more vintage Fisher Price toys that I have tested, click here.
Thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Oh wow! I had all of these as a kid & even took the dog with me everywhere & slept with it ( according to my mom) lol and now my mom has the whole vintage set for my kids. I better tell her the situation. Shes probably going to think im nuts tho
Hi Allie, thanks for commenting! If she thinks you’re nuts maybe share this post with her: https://tamararubin.com/2015/02/fine/
Tamara
What year did they phase out lead? A family
Member has some old little people from the 1970’s…my kids have played with them.
Hi Emily,
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 regulated the amount of Lead in toys. It was fully phased in by 2011. In general Fisher Price toys in the year 2000 and later are not likely to have Lead.
Thank you for commenting.
Tamara