When buying toys for children, one of the main concerns for parents is that the toys will be filled with lead. The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted to lower the level of lead in toys, furniture and any other items that are intended for use by children under the age of 12.
The change is coming as a result of the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 which came as a result of having many products recalled because they were tainted with lead. The allowable amount of lead in these products has been lowered to 100 parts per million.
It is being planned to have this threshold be implemented by the end of August 2011. Many manufactures have already meet this requirement but products will not be subject to third party testing until the end of the year.
Manufactures are responsible for any product liability that comes up as a result of having amount of lead in their products that are over the legal limit.
Lead ingestion can lead to personal injuries. When buying apartments in New York, there is required to be a lead paint disclosure which helps absolve the building of premises liability should anyone get ill as a result of the toxic substance.