LOS ANGELES — Drinking glasses depicting comic book and movie characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman and the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz” exceed federal limits for lead in children’s products by up to 1,000 times, according to laboratory testing commissioned by The Associated Press.
The testing was part of AP’s ongoing investigation into dangerous metals in children’s products and was conducted in response to a recall by McDonald’s of 12 million glasses this summer because cadmium escaped from designs depicting four characters in the latest “Shrek” movie.
The decorative enamel on the superhero and “Oz” sets — made in China and purchased at a Warner Brothers Studios store in Burbank — contained between 16 percent and 30.2 percent lead, which has long been known to reduce IQ in kids. The federal limit on children’s products is 0.03 percent.
The same glasses also contained relatively high levels of the even-more-dangerous cadmium, though there are no federal limits on that toxic metal in design surfaces.
The New Jersey manufacturer of the “Shrek” glasses said in June the products were made according to standard industry practices, which includes the routine use of cadmium to create red and similar colors.
To assess potential problems with glass collectibles beyond the “Shrek” set, AP bought and analyzed new glasses off the shelf, and old ones from online auctions, thrift shops and a flea market. The buys were random. Among the brands on the glasses: Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Burger King and McDonald’s.
Coca-Cola, which had been given AP’s test results last week, announced Sunday evening that after retesting it was voluntarily recalling 88,000 glasses.
The fact it was so easy to find glasses that appeal to kids and appear to violate the federal lead law suggests that contamination in glassware is wider than one McDonald’s promotion.
Unintended consequences
Following a cascade of problems with products manufactured in China, Congress in 2008 passed strict new limits that effectively ban lead in any children’s product. The underlying materials in these products — including the baked-in enamel — cannot be more 0.03 percent lead.
Chinese manufacturers started substituting cadmium for the banned lead, but recent research suggests cadmium also can damage young brains. Cadmium is a carcinogen that can harm kidneys and bones, especially if it accumulates over time.
Cadmium, however, also happens to be an indispensable pigment for an important part of the color palette — without it there is no “fire engine red” (think Superman’s cape and Dorothy’s slippers). Lead on the other hand is not essential.
AP’s testing, conducted by ToyTestingLab of Rhode Island, found that the enamel used to color the Tin Man had the highest lead levels, at 1,006 times the federal limit for children’s products. Every “Oz” and superhero glass tested exceeded the government limit: The Lion by 827 times and Dorothy by 770 times; Wonder Woman by 533 times, Superman by 617 times, Batman by 750 times and the Green Lantern by 677 times.
Federal regulators will decide whether the superhero and “Oz” glasses are “children’s products” and thus subject to strict lead limits. If U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission staffers conclude the glasses to fall outside that definition, the lead levels would be legal.
Judging by the agency’s own analysis, obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act, the “Oz” and superhero glasses appeal to kids.
“Licensed characters based on action superhero themes or friendship themes are very popular” with children ages 6 to 8, CPSC staff wrote when explaining why the “Shrek” glasses, which featured the cartoon ogre and his friends, would end up in children’s hands.
Kid versus adult buyer
Warner Brothers said, “It is generally understood that the primary consumer for these products is an adult, usually a collector.”
However, on Warner Brothers’ website, the superhero glasses are sold alongside kids’ T-shirts with similar images and a school lunch box. An online retailer, , describes the 10-ounce glasses as “a perfect way to serve cold drinks to your children or guests.”
The importer, Utah-based Vandor LLC, said it “markets its products to adult collectors.” The company said less than 10,000 of each set had been sold and that the products were made under contract in China.
The company said that superhero and “Oz” glasses both passed testing done for Vandor by a CPSC-accredited lab, including the same lead content test that ToyTestingLab did for AP — a test only required of children’s products. Spokeswoman Meryl Rader did not answer when asked why a test specific to children’s products would be performed on glasses the company said were not intended for kids.
“The results were well within the legal limits” of 0.03 percent lead, Rader wrote in an e-mail. The company would not share those results.
Informed in general terms of AP’s results, CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson said that the agency would pursue action against any high-lead glasses determined to be children’s products. The agency has authority to enforce lead levels for glasses going back decades, he said.
AP’s testing showed Vandor’s Chinese manufacturer also relied on cadmium. That toxic metal made up as much as 2.5 percent of the decorative surface of the “Oz” and superhero glasses, nearly double the levels found in the recalled “Shrek” glasses. But the CPSC only limits how much cadmium escapes from designs, not how much cadmium the designs contain.
Established procedure
The glasses were tested according to the procedure that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission used in last summer’s “Shrek” glasses recall.
The decorated surface of each glass was stroked 30 times with water- soaked wipes, with each stroke representing a hand touch. The wipes were then analyzed for how many micrograms of lead, cadmium or other elements they collected.
For seven of the superhero and “Oz” glasses, the lab extracted samples of the decorations. That colored enamel was analyzed for its total lead content.
