> For decades, red Lego bricks contained cadmium, a carcinogen.
Ack.
From another article [1]
> One toy to watch out for? “Lego bricks from the ‘70s and ‘80s are the big fail,” Andrew Turner, the study’s lead researcher, told the BBC.
> Roar Rude Trangbæk, a spokesperson for Lego, told The Sun that in regards to hazardous elements, the company “phased that material out back in 1979 to 1981.”
Apparently its both yellow & red bricks. From a forum post [2] about the phase-out:
> Not much information has ever been given out by TLG in regards to the switch from LEGO "with" Cadmium to LEGO without it, except that TLG switched over to Cadmium free LEGO in 1973. However, that doesn't really say a lot. Just look at the switch from old gray to new gray that started in 2003. It took many years for the switch to be complete (old gray elements were still found in LEGO sets for many years). So a 1973 switchover likely only means that the Bayer Corporation stopped sending TLG red and yellow plastic pellets. As for what was still in the TLG inventory.... my guess would be that it continued to find its' way into LEGO sets for several years until the supply of old red/yellow pellets was finally depleted.
Makes me a bit wary to pass those down to my kids.
Heavy metals are bad but accumulative over a lifetime. Licking any one cadmium-tainted product isn't awful for you, as long as you don't work in a cadmium product factory and the general society at large makes an effort to not put cadmium in everything.
Not only is it fairly well encapsulated in plastic, the cadmium sulfide / cadmium selenide pigments are far less toxic when consumed orally than say the old lead carbonate pigment (known for being used as a white paint pigment) due to its poor solubility.
If the kids are old enough not to put legos in their mouth and choke on them and can be encouraged to wash their hands before meals, I wouldn't worry too much, personally.
It's no biggy. Plenty of artists consumed way more heavy metals, 10000x more than kids licking legos. And most didn't become mad hatters or suffer any real issues. The limits we set in medicine are much lower than what may manifest as biological damage. Better safe than sorry, right?
Same could be said for asbestos as well as the undiscovered but numerous carcinogens and toxins we currently use in mass quantities. Every century has some type of widely used, but toxic, chemical discoveries. This century won't be any different.
Ack.
From another article [1]
> One toy to watch out for? “Lego bricks from the ‘70s and ‘80s are the big fail,” Andrew Turner, the study’s lead researcher, told the BBC.
> Roar Rude Trangbæk, a spokesperson for Lego, told The Sun that in regards to hazardous elements, the company “phased that material out back in 1979 to 1981.”
Apparently its both yellow & red bricks. From a forum post [2] about the phase-out:
> Not much information has ever been given out by TLG in regards to the switch from LEGO "with" Cadmium to LEGO without it, except that TLG switched over to Cadmium free LEGO in 1973. However, that doesn't really say a lot. Just look at the switch from old gray to new gray that started in 2003. It took many years for the switch to be complete (old gray elements were still found in LEGO sets for many years). So a 1973 switchover likely only means that the Bayer Corporation stopped sending TLG red and yellow plastic pellets. As for what was still in the TLG inventory.... my guess would be that it continued to find its' way into LEGO sets for several years until the supply of old red/yellow pellets was finally depleted.
Makes me a bit wary to pass those down to my kids.
[1] https://offspring.lifehacker.com/your-old-legos-might-be-tox...
[2] https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/773...