This toy triceratops with 6,298 ppm Lead would be illegal if made today: Another reason to avoid vintage toys
For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for five product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
- All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
- Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!
The amount of Lead considered unsafe and illegal in a modern item manufactured for use by children today is anything 90 ppm or higher in the paint or coating or anything 100 ppm or higher in the substrate. As a result of the high levels of Lead found in this toy (see exact full XRF test results below), it would be considered illegal if sold for children’s use today.
To see more toys I have tested, click here.
To see more toy dinosaurs I have tested, click here.
When tested with an XRF instrument, this toy plastic triceratops dinosaur (“Made in China”) had the following readings (each test was conducted for at least 60 seconds, and any metals not listed were not detected).
Scroll down below to see the readings associated with each image.
Belly (unpainted — image above):
Belly (unpainted — image above):- Lead (Pb): 6,298 +/- 137 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 157 +/- 11 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 916 +/- 68 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 388 +/- 179 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 1,051 +/- 32 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 51 +/- 8 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 185 +/- 19 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 149 +/- 28 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 603 +/- 87 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 5,783 +/- 1,698 ppm
Black Painted Back (image above):
- Lead (Pb): 6,215 +/- 129 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 141 +/- 10 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 646 +/- 58 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 473 +/- 161 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 923 +/- 28 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 48 +/- 8 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 184 +/- 17 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 169 +/- 25 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 632 +/- 81 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 7,030 +/- 1,516 ppm
While Lead can cause permanent brain damage in young children (as with my son who has a diagnosed brain injury from being Lead-poisoned as a baby), the high levels of Cadmium and Antimony in this toy are also concerning as each of those heavy metals has been demonstrated to cause cancer.
The test results reported here on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable. Multiple tests were completed on the separate components to confirm the levels found. All test results reported on this site are from testing conducted with a freshly calibrated XRF instrument testing in “Consumer Goods” mode (with readouts in parts per million — ppm).
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
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I have the exact triceratops toy. Is it safe to have on display or does it pose a risk just being in the room?
I personally remember chewing on this as a young girl.
At least my memory isn’t damaged?
What decade is this toy from?