If you’re buying a present for a child this year (are you listening, Santa?), here’s one thing you absolutely
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must take with you when you go shopping: The Moms Rising Healthy Toy Guide!
Here’s how it works: Before you give a child a toy this holiday season, search the HealthyToys database for its chemical test results:
http://www.momsrising.org/healthytoys
When you’re at the store, you can search the HealthyToys database from your cell phone. Simply text “healthytoys [name of toy]” — for example “healthytoys Elmo” or “healthytoys Wii” — to 41411.
Isn’t this taking toy-shopping to a new extreme? Unfortunately, no. The bad news is that, as the Moms Rising group notes, “when the Ecology Center, a Michigan-based nonprofit, tested over 1,500 popular children’s toys for lead, cadmium, arsenic, PVC and other harmful chemicals, they found that one in three toys tested were found to contain “medium” or “high” levels of chemicals of concern.”
That’s just way too high for our babies and kids, don’t you think? Time to be an informed shopper! Feel free to email this info to any/all friends and spread the word – you don’t have to feel lost when you’re facing a wall of potentially-toxic toys. Help is here, thanks to the folks at Moms Rising.