These toy musical bells (purchased on Amazon) are painted with high-Lead paint — and are illegal (because they were sold to be used by children).

Sunday – March 27, 2022

There is quite a bit of information about these bells below  – with all questions that have been asked so far answered in detail. Please read the FULL post (scroll down and continue reading below each of the images, etc.) Thank you. 

I am planning on reporting these to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (as a violation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008) and hopefully they will initiate a formal recall (across all brands). In the meantime, DO NOT let your children play with bells of this type or style (regardless of the brand or manufacturer) if you purchased them from Amazon [i.e. not in-person at a known / reputable brick-and-mortar store].

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Important points to note about these bells:

1. The green and red bells pictured in the key image for this post (and in the images above) are from a multi-color set of eight musical bells (see image below). Bell colors in that set included:
   • White Bell,
   • Purple Bell,
   • Orange Bell,
   • Yellow Bell,
   • Dark Blue Bell,
   • Light Blue Bell,
   • Green Bell &
   • Red Bell.
2. The following piece of information is truly irrelevant, as I suspect ALL of these bells from ALL manufacturers (in all sizes and styles) as being potentially similarly toxic / painted with high-Lead paint: These particular bells were purchased from Amazon and the box has very little in the way of any markings — just “Ehome” in one corner, and “Made in China” in the other corner.
3. Here’s an Amazon link to the set, so you can see it in the wild (DO NOT BUY THIS SET!)
4. MOST IMPORTANT: There are MANY off-brands selling the same or similar bells (sketchy brand names & made in China — not major American brands.) Given these bells (from different brands and in different sizes) all look like they have the exact same shape and color schemes, I expect many “off-brands” of these are being manufactured in the same factory (as is the norm with these sorts of generic “commodity”/inexpensive mass-produced items from China]. What this means is that I expect the Lead paint issue on these extends far beyond the concern for these particular bells sold by “Ehome”.
5. If you click this link you can see the same (or identical looking) bells being sold by MANY different companies. All of the similar bells from any of these companies are suspect, in my opinion, as likely being painted with unsafe levels of Lead paint: https://amzn.to/3LhQ3sP

Please continue reading below the image.

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How much Lead is “too much” Lead?
Why is this a problem?

The green bell tested positive for 4,654 ppm Lead in the paint. The red bell tested positive for 15,600 ppm Lead in the paint. [Full XRF readings for each bell are below.]

If a modern item is manufactured and sold today with the intention being that it will be used by children (i.e. it is sold or marketed for use by children, as these bells are), it is considered unsafe (and highly illegal) if the paint or coating tests positive for Lead at levels at or above 90 ppm.  The two bells pictured (and tested for this post) are positive for Lead levels 62 times the legal limit, and 173 times the legal limit, respectively.

Science has established (and all Federal regulatory agencies all agree) that there is no safe level of Lead exposure for children (and really for all humans, for that matter). Federal regulatory agencies also agree with the science that has demonstrated that it takes just a microscopic amount of Lead to poison a child (this article discusses how much Lead it takes to poison a child in more detail).

It is for this reason (and the fact that these bells appear to be made in the same factory in China – regardless of their brand markings) that our advice today is to remove these from your child’s environment immediately until further testing can be done to determine which of the brands – if any -may be safe.

To note: In this particular EHome bell set, only the red and green bells were positive for unsafe levels of Lead in the paint. This data point however, CANNOT be extrapolated to other sets or brands. Do NOT assume your bells are safe if they are not red or green. My concern is that (given human nature), some folks may jump to an erroneous conclusion (without enough data to conclude anything at this stage) that all other colors in other brands (or other versions from this brand) may be safe. I would expect this is NOT true. It is more likely that more colors in other sets are unsafe, rather than the other way around (given the potential for different paints to be used in different batches, and different colors to be contaminated with toxicants at different levels in these different batches, manufactured at different times). Said another way: PLEASE do NOT assume at this point that any bells like this are safe regardless of whether they are sold under the EHome brand and regardless of whether they are Red or Green. PLEASE operate under the temporary assumption that ALL of this type of bell is all unsafe, until further notice (including similar bells, with or without handles).

IF you have bells like this from EHome or from another brand and you would like to send them to me for testing please follow the instructions on this post (to help us – as a community of concerned parents – further identify the scope of the issue).

To get these companies to STOP making and selling Lead-contaminated children’s toys we (again – as an advocacy community of concerned parents) might be better off purchasing several of the different iterations of these bells direct from Amazon – from different brands (and having them sent straight to us here at Lead Safe Mama, LLC for additional testing) – so we can determine which of the new product on Amazon currently being sold is toxic and unsafe (and which might be safe).

It is more likely that the Consumer Product Safety Commission will take swift action if it is new products being sold today than if it is older products. Hopefully the CPSC will initiate a mandatory recall on these products going back years (for multiple production years into the past) if we can provide them with enough data. I do need your help however, to do more research on this. I will donate my time to test more bells [if you want to contribute to help cover testing costs, there are details on how to do that on this link] — but I need others to help purchase more of the bells for testing.

I will create a “shopping list” of different bells (i.e. from different “sketchy” brands on Amazon) that I would like purchased and sent to me, so readers can help out by purchasing those items directly. Your purchase of those items would be a contribution in support of the work (but would not be tax-deductible — as we are not affiliated with a non-profit (we engage in readership-driven consumer goods advocacy work, that is both directed by and funded by our readers, you can read more about our business model on this link), If you would like to support this work with a contribution (or in other ways) click here to see all the ways you can get involved with the #LeadSafeMama movement. Thank you!

In the meantime, I will again reiterate: remove any and all of these painted musical bells (in the styles with or without the handles) from your child’s environment (this includes notifying your child’s school or pre-school or music teacher of the concern, as applicable). Thank You.

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Full XRF Test Results for the GREEN and RED bells pictured:

Reading #1) On Green Paint of Bell
60-Second Test

• Lead (Pb): 4,654 +/- 197 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): non-detect 
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Arsenic (As): non-detect
• Bromine (Br): non-detect
• Chromium (Cr): 11,800 +/- 600 ppm
• Vanadium (V): 70,900 +/- 1,300 ppm
• Manganese (Mn): 10,600 +/- 600 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 344,800 +/- 11,000 ppm
• Cobalt (Co): 18,700 +/- 800 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 1,231 +/- 109 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 204 +/- 39 ppm
  
• Titanium (Ti): 300,500 +/- 3,200 ppm
• Zirconium (Zr): 317 +/- 21 ppm
• Niobium (Nb): 637 +/- 41 ppm
• Molybdenum (Mo): 1,850 +/- 100 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 101 +/- 17 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 34,100 +/- 1,700 ppm
• Tungsten (W): 255 +/- 143 ppm
• No other metals detected in consume goods mode.

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Reading #2) On Red Paint of Bell
60-Second Test

• Lead (Pb): 15,600 +/- 600 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): non-detect 
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Arsenic (As): non-detect
• Bromine (Br): non-detect
• Chromium (Cr): 14,900 +/- 700 ppm
• Vanadium (V): 76,800 +/- 1,500 ppm
• Manganese (Mn): 10,600 +/- 600 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 249,700 +/- 8,100 ppm
• Cobalt (Co): 16,200 +/- 700 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 123 +/- 59 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 72 +/- 30 ppm
  
• Titanium (Ti): 288,600 +/- 3,900 ppm
• Zirconium (Zr): 514 +/- 27 ppm
• Niobium (Nb): 576 +/- 37 ppm
• Molybdenum (Mo): 1,394 +/- 85 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 44 +/- 15 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 32,400 +/- 1,500 ppm
• No other metals detected in consume goods mode.

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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. Tamara’s sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in August of 2005. She began testing consumer goods for toxicants in 2009 and was the parent-advocate responsible for finding Lead in the popular fidget spinner toys in 2017. Tamara uses 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 tested. Please click through to this link to learn more about the testing methodology used for the test results discussed and reported on this website.

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