GoodGuide issues a slight correction about its Zhu Zhu pets testing

On Dec. 5, GoodGuide said they found levels of antimony and chromium above legal limits in some of season's most popular toys.

In its first press release, GoodGuide said:

Parents who have not yet managed to score a Zhu Zhu Pet this holiday season might want to breathe a sigh of relief. The Zhu Zhu Pet Hamster Mr Squiggles, the Bakugan 7-in-1 Maxus Dragonoid, and the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Learning Farm, were three of this holiday season's hot toys with higher-than-mandated amounts of several toxic chemicals.

GoodGuide, which provides health, environment and social responsibility ratings on consumer products, tested the top holiday toys from Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and Amazon.

"We rated the most popular toys as these are the ones that will end up under the most Christmas trees this year," said Dara O'Rourke, CEO and co-founder of GoodGuide. "These are big brand toys with two of them -- Zhu Zhu Pets and Bakugan Maxus Dragonoid -- nominated for Toy of the Year awards by the Toy Industry Association."

The tests administered by GoodGuide revealed the higher-than-allowed presence of two potentially toxic elements: antimony and chromium. Depending on the level of exposure, antimony can lead to cancer, lung and heart problems and impacts on fertility. And certain forms of chromium can be associated with cancer and reproductive hazards. The new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act introduced mandatory limits on the amount of these elements in toys in February of 2009.

"While most people won't have heard of these elements since the time they studied the periodic table at school, they do have known health effects which is why the rule went into place to limit them in toys," said O'Rourke. "The toy industry has done a lot to improve product safety, particularly when it comes to lead, but our tests reveal that some surprisingly big name toys are still slipping through the cracks with other toxic chemicals."

The current federal standard for both antimony and chromium is 60 ppm (parts per million). GoodGuide tests revealed the following amounts:

• Zhu Zhu Pet Hamster Mr Squiggles 93-106 ppm Antimony
• Bakugan 7-in-1 Maxus Dragonoid 466-807 ppm Chromium
• Bakugan 7-in-1 Maxus Helios 143-756 ppm Chromium
• Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Laughing Farm 193 ppm Chromium
• International Playthings My First Purse (Purple) 76 ppm Antimony

"As a father, I know how highly anticipated some of these holiday gifts can be," said O'Rourke. "At the same time, every parent wants to make sure they are giving their child a safe toy."

On the good news front, out of the 15 hottest holiday toys rated by GoodGuide, none of them had lead in them and two of them scored a perfect 10 on Health & Safety. The star performers are:  LEGO Star Wars The Clone Wars Fan's Vote Anniversary Edition - Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, and ChixOs Pink Design-A-Luxury Loft

The remaining toys were found to have one or more of the following toxic chemicals at concerning levels: arsenic, bromine, chlorine, antimony, chromium, or tin.

In addition to the ratings of the 15 hot holiday toys, consumers can find ratings for more than 700 new toys and over 2000 toys at GoodGuide. These ratings are produced in partnership with HealthyStuff, a project of The Ecology Center.

A Thermo Scientific NITON XL3t series X-ray fluorescence analyzer was used for GoodGuide's analysis. XRF technology is a method for determining levels of specific elements found within a wide variety of surfaces and materials. The top layer of a toy is analyzed which is what children are most likely to be in contact with. The GoodGuide research team tested multiple samples of each toy and different parts from each sample.

GoodGuide issues correction about its toy testing methodologySAN

In a press release we issued on Saturday, December 5, we published the results of our testing of chemical levels in toys and stated that certain toys we tested had antimony and chromium levels that exceed federal standards. Since issuing our release, we have learned that the testing methodology used in the federal standards (a soluble method) is different than the methodology we used in our testing (a surface-based method).

Accordingly, while we accurately reported the chemical levels in the toys that we measured using our testing method, we should not have compared our results to federal standards.

We regret this error.

GoodGuide helps consumers find safe, healthy, and socially responsible products and companies. GoodGuide currently offers detailed product information for personal care, household chemical, toy and food products on its website.

By making information about consumer products transparent, GoodGuide's goal is to help people shop smarter and motivate companies to offer even better products.

HAVE YOU BOUGHT ANY OF THESE TOYS? DO YOU PLAN TO? HAVE THESE FINDINGS CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT BUYING THESE TOYS?