Vintage (1978-1988) yellow Lego® guy w red hat: 5,096 ppm Cadmium [≥40 is unsafe] & 26 ppm Arsenic

Click here to read my recent post that fully discusses the concern for Cadmium found in vintage (1970s-1980s) Legos®.

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Below is the full XRF reading set for the vintage yellow Lego® head with red hat 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 head:

• Barium (Ba): 95 +/- 50 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 77 +/- 4 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 25 +/- 8 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 1,922 +/- 131 ppm
• Additional metals not listed were not detected by the XRF instrument.

Red plastic hat:

• Cadmium (Cd): 5.096 +/- 39 ppm
• Arsenic (As): 26 +/- 6 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 947 +/- 58 ppm
• Chromium (Cr): 43 +/- 25 ppm
• Selenium (Se): 1,943 +/- 16 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 26 +/- 4 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 15 +/- 6 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 72 +/- 12 ppm
• Bismuth (Bi): 10 +/- 3 ppm
• Vanadium (V): 256 +/- 88 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

Here’s a link where you can read all of my posts related to Legos®! 

NOTE: Because the yellow head of this piece is negative for Cadmium I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a later piece (later in the 1980s perhaps?) than the pieces I posted earlier today (even though they are all from the same collection / from the same family.)

As always, thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama