Lead, Arsenic, and Uranium in Plastic Play Food Toys

• In Event: Teaching Science and Engineering for Social Justice – III

Abstract

This paper reflects on how to effectively integrate citizen science into the classroom, based on work in a Northeastern University Environmental Health course studying lead exposure in a childcare setting. We describe the process and design of the citizen science study, how it builds on STS work about the importance of praxis to change Environmental Health education (such as in Kenny et al, 2019), and how to combine research and education to improve consumer-safety.

We conducted a lead assessment of a daycare using citizen and professional science methods. We identified concerning levels of lead, arsenic and uranium in plastic play food toys (PPFTs). In total we analyzed 220 PPFTs and found: 8.1% (18/220) tested above the lead concentration regulatory thresholds for children’ products of 100ppm. 4.2% of the PPFTs tested above the US voluntary standard for arsenic in children’s products of 25ppm. This is the first study investigating heavy metals in PPFTs. The results were concerning given that PPFTs are frequently mouthed by children.

We discuss how to build collaborative locations-based curriculum that supports novel research findings as well as how to approach novel and challenging experimental findings such as toy chicken-legs that contain uranium and plastic bananas loaded with lead and arsenic. We discuss how to scale class-room based citizen science research to support community-scale interventions such as integrating leaded-toy disposal into existing e-waste recycling programs, as well as legislative measures to strengthen children’s protection from heavy metals without shifting the burden onto individual consumers.

Authors

• Kaleem Ahmid, Northeastern University

• Sara Wylie, Northeastern University