That 4th of July when my son freaked-me-the-f out by doing something he saw on YouTube (video)

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Introduction (for those new to this website):

Tamara Rubin is a federal-award-winning independent advocate for consumer goods safety and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children, her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005. Since 2009 Tamara has been using XRF testing (a scientific method used by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals), including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic. All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable. Items are tested multiple times, to confirm the test results for each component. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023.

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Written: July 5, 2019
Updated: June 30, 2021

Original title: Pop-Its®, purchased at a California Walmart: 17 ppm Lead (a potential dust/inhalation hazard given the intended use)

Fourth of July a couple of years ago my kid did a thing. At first, I said, “Woah that’s cool, how did you learn to do that.” Then I said, “WAIT WHAT — go wash your hands now, and don’t ever do that again.” And then I wrote this post about it:

“Tamara, do you let your kids play with Pop-Its®?”

In the past I have allowed my children to play with Pop-Its®, as — in normal use/use as intended — Pop-Its® are gingerly selected out of the box (so as not to pop them when touching them) and then thrown on the ground (and that’s it!). My perception of how kids interacted with them was that they were not touched/interacted with very much, and did not create smoke or dust (and of course, I always made my children wash their hands thoroughly after use).

And then I changed my mind…

Unfortunately, I then saw my son doing something he had “seen on YouTube” that absolutely horrified me: he was snapping them in his fingers for the purpose of recording a video in order to capture and create the still image below (continue reading after the video and photo)!:

First, the very short video

(Note: you may need to have your pop-up blocker turned off to watch the video), and below is the resultant photo (the reason he did the experiment):

 

The resultant photo from the video:

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Why what my son did was concerning to me:

In spite of recent regulatory actions to remove Lead from personal Fireworks, all Pop-Its® I have ever tested have been positive for at least some amount of Lead, in one or more tests using an XRF Instrument.

After nearly a decade of confirming (each year) that Pop-Its® tested positive for Lead, I had thought/expected/hoped that newer Pop-Its® might be Lead-free. I also thought it might be possible (as with other mass-manufactured products) that while stores in most U.S. states sold Leaded versions of the product, vendors in California might sell a Lead-free version of the product. To explore this inquiry I bought two separate sets of Pop-Its® at two different stores in California for testing using XRF technology.

Exact Readings for the Pop-Its Pictured in This Post

The Pop-Its® pictured here had the following XRF readings when tested for a minimum of 180 seconds (If you are new to this website and want to read more about the testing methodology employed, click here):

Reading on set one:

• Lead (Pb): 17 +/- 4 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 2,359 +/- 135 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 40 +/- 13 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 2,087 +/- 57 ppm
• Bismuth (Bi): 34 +/- 6 ppm

Reading on set two:

• Lead (Pb): 9 +/- 4 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 1,792 +/- 158 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 23 +/- 14 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 2,003 +/- 62 ppm
• Bismuth (Bi): 22 +/- 6 ppm

Caution: “This is not a Toy”

Given these Lead test results, it makes sense that the product also has a specific warning on the package (see image below) that they are “not a toy and not intended for use by children under the age of 12 years old.”

(Please continue reading below the image.)

You might ask: “Is this amount of Lead a problem? It seems low!”

While not every reading of the Pop-Its® pictured here showed a detectable amount of Lead, most certainly did. The variation in the readings is indicative of the Lead found being a dust hazard, likely from contaminants of the “explosive” Barium-based components of the product (especially given the intended use/function/design of the product). XRF readings are accurate, science-based, and replicable. Each reading set above is the full metal set found with the XRF. Metals not listed were not detected by the XRF in Consumer Goods mode.

The amount of Lead generally considered a problem (and the level at which a toy manufactured for use by children today is considered illegal) is 90 parts per million (ppm) and up in the paint, glaze, or coating of an item or 100 ppm Lead and up in the substrate. There is not a set “dust level hazard” for “toys” known to contain or create Lead dust (as Pop-Its® does).

At 17 ppm Lead, not only are Pop-Its® a potential dust/inhalation hazard, but they are also a potential ingestion hazard — think about the following scenario: kid plays with Pop-its® at 4th of July picnic and does not wash hands before grabbing a hot dog or potato chips from picnic table… kid eats food and licks his fingers. < #Sigh>. Definitely a potential ingestion hazard at this point — especially when you consider that ingested Lead is considered toxic in measurements in the Parts Per Billion (ppb) range, not the Parts Per Million (ppm) range — 17 ppm is equal to 17,000 ppb!

Conclusion: Pop-Its® are fundamentally not safe for children to use or play with.

Even though the amount of Lead found in these Pop-Its® may be perceived as “small” or “insignificant,” all regulatory agencies (FDA, CDC, EPA, etc.) agree that there is no safe level of Lead exposure for children.

Given the above test results (along with the potential for unexpected “off-label” use of Pop-Its® — including how my son Avi used these to make the above video when I was not paying attention!), I will no longer be purchasing these for my children to use. I am also planning a bit of an experiment to attempt to quantify the amount of available Lead-in-dust (using a dust wipe sample methodology) in a box of Pop-Its®. Once I have completed that experiment and have test results available, I will link that post here.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama