Vintage (1978-1988) Red & Yellow Lego® door: 10,300 ppm Cadmium [≥40 is unsafe] & 38 ppm Arsenic
Below is the full XRF reading set for the vintage red and yellow Lego® door pictured here [test results are replicable, and were done for a minimum of three minutes – 180 seconds, for the greatest possible level of accuracy]:
Yellow plastic door body:
- Lead (Pb): negative
- Cadmium (Cd): 10,300 +/- 59 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): negative
- Arsenic (As): negative
- Barium (Ba): 393 +/- 57 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): negative
- Antimony (Sb): negative
- Selenium (Se): 80 +/- 5 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 3 +/- 2 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 3,021 +/- 22 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 19 +/- 10 ppm
- Nickel (Ni): 12 +/- 6 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 22 +/- 13 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 6,226 +/- 231 ppm
- Additional metals not listed were not detected by the XRF instrument.
Red plastic “window” part:
- Lead (Pb): negative
- Cadmium (Cd): 9,154 +/- 72 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): negative
- Arsenic (As): 38 +/- 8 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,019 +/- 71 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 48 +/- 30 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): negative
- Selenium (Se): 3,003 +/- 26 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 425 +/- 11 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 163 +/- 16 ppm
- Bismuth (Bi): 12 +/- 4 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 216 +/- 105 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 312 +/- 151 ppm
- Additional metals not listed were not detected by the XRF instrument.
The level of Cadmium found in this particular piece is considered very unsafe for young children to play with (and far exceeds allowable limits in modern applicable regulatory safety standards).
In the absence of testing each particular vintage Lego® piece in your home (which would be ridiculously cost prohibitive), as a rule of thumb, vintage red & yellow Legos from the 1970s and 1980s should be disposed of and replaced with their new modern, neurotoxicant-free counterparts.
If you have a little more time on your hands (more time than it might take to just throw these items in the trash), I would also like to encourage you to write a letter to The Lego® Group (TLG) and ask if you can send them your potentially toxic vintage blocks in exchange for new safe replacement parts. If enough of us did this, we might actually create a movement that would result in a proactive response and voluntary recall by Lego for their historically toxic products. [TLG is not otherwise obligated to recall products made 30+ years ago before the current regulatory standards were in place.]
Corporate Headquarters:
The LEGO Group
Aastvej 1
DK-7190 Billund
Denmark
Phone: +45 79 50 60 70
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Can you tell me when the safe legos were produced? I have quite a few from probably 1992 -1996.