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Toxic Lead Levels Found In Children's Library Books
Toxic Lead Levels Found In Children's Library Books
SEATTLE -- Because of exclusive work done by KIRO Team 7 Investigators, we are now certain some children's books at your local library contain toxic levels of lead. Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne reveals results of our own certified tests -- results so explosive they've already caught the attention of Congress.

 

A new law targeting hazardous levels of lead in a wide variety of children’s products does not exempt books. The American Library Association thinks that's unfair, telling federal regulators that kids' books don't contain lead and checking their inventory is a waste of money.

 

The problem we found is that nobody has ever checked to see if that's true.

 

KIRO Team 7 Investigators grabbed an armful of used books from the children's section of Seattle's main library.

 

Using a simple test with an easy to read result, we tested 18 books ourselves. Two samples turned pink, which means something on the book contains exposed lead.

 

Knowing the over-the-counter indicators aren't always accurate, we paid a certified lab to do a detailed chemical analysis.

 

Scientists confirmed our suspicion.

 

While pointing to our results, Friedman and Bruya testing specialist Brad Benson told us, “That's about two and a half times our detection limit, so would definitely consider that a verifiable hit of lead on that sample.”

 

Seattle parent Becky Anderson routinely takes her toddler Annie to the library to find fun reading material. She was a bit taken back by the notion that books, she was checking out for her daughter, might contain toxic lead levels.

 

“I wasn't aware of that. That is really concerning to me. We've gone to lengths to have our house examined for lead and concerned about the toy recalls. I hadn't heard about the books. That is alarming. They need to look into it.”

 

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), starting this year, children's products are considered hazardous with lead levels exceeding 300 parts per million -- but even that's considered unsafe.

 

A new federal law says toys and children’s books with lead over 100 parts per million can't be sold or distributed two years from now.

 

The books we tested show respective lead levels at 546 and 456 parts per million -- over the allowable safe limits.

 

Numerous parents we spoke with outside Seattle’s libraries wanted to weigh in on this controversy.

 

“Oh my gosh! I'm very surprised. Shocked!” one mother told our investigative team. “I'm going to have to look into this for sure, because it is a serious problem. Wow. Thanks. I'm not sure what to do with my books now. Take them back?”

 

Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne traveled to Washington, D.C., to speak to the head of the American Library Association about its request for a blanket exemption to lead testing.

 

Executive Director Emily Sheketoff told Halsne she had never seen a positive lead test on a book at any one of its 16,000 branches.

 

“No one has ever come forward, and I've talked to a lot of people, nobody has ever come forward and said I've found this book has a high content of lead in it,” Sheketoff said.

 

So we shared with Sheketoff our limited test results.

 

The lab report shows 546 parts per million of lead in a book called Poems of Childhood. Another report shows 456 parts per million in a book entitled Japanese Children’s Stories. We picked up both inside the assigned children’s section inside Seattle’s main downtown library.

 

Sheketoff responded to Halsne, “We are in the business of helping children. If there is a potential threat to children, we want to know about it. But we're not in a position to take tens of millions of books off the shelf and replace them, if you even could test them.”

 

After seeing our results, Sheketoff said it's more important than ever for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to come up with a logical solution that does not bankrupt this country's public libraries.

 

We know our pool sample of only 18 books isn't large enough to qualify as a real study. However, Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a former member of the United States EPA lead advisory panel, says our findings could be significant.

 

“Toddlers are constantly sucking on these things at the same time they are reading or having it read to them. For those kinds of books, I worry quite a bit. We need to make sure that some good regulations are in place to protect that age kid from books.”

 

Lanphear is currently working at Simon Fraser University as a professor of Children’s Environmental Health.

 

He believes before federal regulators consider handing libraries a blanket exemption for lead-testing, somebody better figure out what percentage of public books could be dangerous.

 

“The only way to protect kids from lead poisoning is to make sure there isn't lead in their environment.”

 

KIRO-TV chose to keep the two books we found that contained lead. We declared them “damaged” and paid the Seattle Public Library for replacements. However, it appears they are still on the shelves in several other library branches.

 

Both books were printed before 1983, but experts repeatedly told KIRO Team 7 Investigators, because there has not been a comprehensive study on lead in used books, they cannot identify a pattern of what kinds of books might contain toxic levels. There is a study that shows books printed after 2004 by major manufacturers of children’s books have no traceable lead levels.

 

Our investigation into political efforts to exempt library books from the new lead standard laws is far from over.

 

Halsne discovered a major "study," cited by the Library Association as proof that ordinary books don’t contain lead, is not what it appears.