Get the Lead Out

By Judith

Much has been discussed in recent months about the amount of lead in different items - especially children's toys - made in China. I don't have any answers, just questions. For example:

Is there more lead in toys now than there used to be?

How much lead was in those now-antique, quaint, metal toys from Victorian times?

How much lead was in the toys that kids of my generation used to play with 40 or 50 years ago?

Were the window sills we all teethed on as toddlers painted with lead?

If there was more lead then than now, why aren't we all driveling idiots, or dead?

Is there more lead allowed in items used in other countries, and, if so, why aren't they all driveling idiots, or dead?

Does more research need to be done on the amount of lead that is risky and just how it affects us?

Is lead the alar (remember Meryl Streep wailing about "the children"?) of our day?

Is the lead scare politically motivated because all these things are made in China?

See, I don't have answers, but maybe the questions are enough for now.