Lead a Chinese problem in more things than toys

BEIJING - China's problems with lead in consumer products go far beyond tainted toys.

Chinese firms use lead in a wide range of products, and experts say China's children are suffering the health consequences.

Beijing has prohibited leaded gasoline in recent years and has tightened standards for other goods. But enforcement is spotty, and lead is still so common that researchers say up to one-fifth of Chinese children tested had unsafe levels of it in their blood.

In comparison, about 310,000 U.S. children ages 1 to 5 have blood-lead levels that require treatment or other measures, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most get it from paint chips and dust in deteriorating buildings - not recalled toys, U.S. health officials say.

In China's latest product-safety incident, Mattel Inc. is recalling about 19 million Chinese-made toys for lead-paint or swallowing hazards. The world's largest toy firm said its supplier, Early Light Industrial Co., hired a subcontractor for painting that violated Mattel's rules by using paint from an outside source instead of Early Light.

Yesterday, managers at Early Light's Hong Kong headquarters and its factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

An official of a trade group, the China National Light Industry Council, argued that responsibility for meeting foreign standards should not lie with Chinese manufacturers.

"The quality of Chinese-made toys with American brands should be the responsibility of the American brand owner, not the Chinese manufacturer," said Zhang Yanfen, secretary of the council's panel on toy standards.

Representatives for China's Health Ministry and product-safety agency, and the China Toy Association, an industry group, all declined to comment.

Lead was long added to paint to make colors brighter and to gasoline to lubricate engine parts, but exposure can harm children and cause brain damage. The United States and other nations have banned leaded gasoline and limited the use of lead paint to ship hulls and other settings where children are unlikely to come into contact with it.

China has joined developed countries in tightening controls on lead after long ignoring the health and environmental cost of its 28-year-old economic boom. But the rules are difficult to enforce in a society with a thriving underground industry producing fake and substandard food, medicine and other goods. Lower-level authorities often are reluctant to force changes that might hurt local companies.

The sale of leaded gasoline was banned in 2000. But inspectors found it being made as late as 2004 for use in older vehicles, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Lead's health effects are being widely felt.

In the most serious case, 877 villagers near a lead smelter in Gansu province, including 334 children under 14, suffered lead poisoning, state media reported.

The smelter's owners ran it with its pollution-control gear off to save money, news reports said. They said some children might suffer permanent brain damage.