Toxic metals in children's Halloween makeup

[dlevere]

PORTLAND, Ore. — A word of warning from an environmental watchdog group about some of that makeup and face paint your child may be wearing this Halloween: It could contain heavy metals.

"When it comes to Halloween makeup and novelty makeup for children, the tests are showing there are heavy metals showing up," said Jen Coleman with the Oregon Environmental Council.

A recent study done by the Breast Cancer Fund analyzed a variety of Halloween makeup kits from across the country - makeup marketed to kids.

Of the nearly 48 makeup palettes it tested, the group found at least one toxic heavy metal in nearly half of them.

Lead was found in 9/48 samples tested. Lead is unsafe at any level, especially for kids.

The darkest pigments were at highest risk.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...keup/92759186/

[bungholio]

There's a safety hazard on everything with people "accidentally" using too much lead or whatever. It seems so frequent I can't tell if it's a case of using it being unavoidable or nobody knows it is dangerous. It'd be weird to think people are intentionally putting dangerous amounts in for products that are mainly used by kids, but then I remember the weird foreign guy with that spinning fan toy that when you remove the picture there's a demonic picture of a girl slitting her wrists with razor blades. That was a completely different style though, guy just had messed up pictures instead of dumping a large amount of lead into makeup. Considering there is no safe level of lead, what are we still using it for that doesn't already have a better alternative???

[dlevere]

Lead (/lɛd/) is a chemical element with atomic number 82 and symbol Pb (from Latin: plumbum). It is a soft, malleable and heavy metal. Freshly cut, solid lead has a bluish-white color that soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed to air; the liquid metal has shiny chrome-silver luster. One property that is very characteristic for lead is its density: 11.34 g/cm3, which exceeds densities of most common materials, even though there are far less common ones that are far more dense than lead. Lead has the second highest atomic number of all practically stable elements. As such, lead is located at the end of some decay chains of heavier elements, which in part accounts for the relative abundance of lead: it exceeds those of other similarly-numbered elements. Chemically, lead is a post-transition metal; it displays the relative inertness against air unless powdered. Its compounds are most commonly found in the +2 oxidation state, rather than +4, unlike the other group 14 elements.

Lead is relatively easy to extract, and as such, lead metal has been known to prehistoric people in Western Asia. While its softness and dullness prevented it from high demand, association of galena—a principle ore of lead—often bore silver in it, which helped initiate production of lead. Lead production peaked in ancient Rome, and lead became easily available to common people. The corrosion-resistant metal was extensively used for water pipes (hence English: plumbing) and as a sweetener, even though lead was documented to be poisonous back then. Lead mining went in decline in Europe during the Middle Ages but flourished in East Asia. However, only as late as during the Industrial Revolution were the Roman production rates outranked. The metal was finally established as poisonous as late as in the late nineteenth century, which led to its eventual displacement from many uses, and it has been or is being phased out from those which include immediate contact to people.

Lead has a number of properties that make it advantageous to use, alongside its commonness: high density, low melting point, ductility, and relative inertness against oxygen attacks. Moreover, lead minerals are easier to mine and then lead is easier to extract from its ores than many other metals, which makes the resulting metal relatively inexpensive. For example, lead is used in building construction, lead–acid batteries, bullets and shot, weights, as part of solders, pewters, fusible alloys, and as a radiation shield. One disadvantage of using lead, however, is its chemical toxicity, and it has been a reason why lead was or is being phased out for some uses. If ingested or inhaled, lead and its compounds are poisonous to animals and humans. Lead is a neuro-toxin that accumulates both in soft tissues and the bones, damaging the nervous system and causing brain disorders. Excessive lead also causes blood disorders in mammals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead