Vintage 1962 Milton Bradley Candy Land game board: 41 ppm Lead. Safe by all modern standards… but…

Vintage Candy Land game board

While the total content Lead test results for this vintage Candy Land game board (using high-precision XRF technology) are fairly low (and within the range of what is considered safe by all modern standards even for newly manufactured items intended for use by children), I do have concerns about vintage paper and cardboard products (like vintage game boards) with trace Lead present potentially creating Leaded dust at levels that are not within safe range for dust.

How can you know if items like this are actually safe?

I have recently tested a vintage book using the dust wipe sampling testing methodology and the results of that testing will give some insight as to whether or not my concerns for children’s products of this nature are warranted. I should have those test results available in the coming week. Additionally the owner of this game board did not send me the vintage game pieces that went with the board – but based on my decade+ experience in testing objects like this I am fairly confident that at least the red and yellow plastic gingerbread men pieces (if that is what came with this game) are likely to also test positive for Lead (and likely at much higher levels than found in the board.)

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XRF test results for vintage Candy Land game board

Test on yellow part of board

• Lead (Pb): 27 +/- 13 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 203 +/- 36 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 521 +/- 99 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 8,999 +/- 275 ppm

Test on white part of board

• Lead (Pb): 38 +/- 14 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 266 +/- 39 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 531 +/- 101 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 8,615 +/- 273 ppm

Test on blue part of board

• Lead (Pb): 39 +/- 14 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 157 +/- 34 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 61 +/- 29 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 441 +/- 92 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 8,426 +/- 264 ppm

Test on green part of board

• Lead (Pb): 28 +/- 12 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 183 +/- 33 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 56 +/- 30 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 453 +/- 91 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 7,952 +/- 249 ppm

Test on red part of board

• Lead (Pb): 37 +/- 12 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 159 +/- 29 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 548 +/- 87 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 8,941 +/- 265 ppm

Test on back of board

• Lead (Pb): 41 +/- 9 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 324 +/- 171 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 195 +/- 21 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 392 +/- 54 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 2,113 +/- 105 ppm

As always, thank you for reading and for sharing my posts. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama