Look at Grown-Up Chelsea June 15, 2004 “Ohh
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50¢ EVERYWHERE ON THE WEB: WWW.SUNTIMES.COM HOME DELIVERY: CALL 1-888-848-4637 LATE SPORTS FINAL TUESDAY WOW! LOOK AT GROWN-UP CHELSEA JUNE 15, 2004 “OHH . YEAH” 84° 64° PAGE 44 PAGE 3 AND WHAT’S UP WITH THE BUSH TWINS? Weather forecast: Pages 2, 34 METRO CITY HALL PAYOFF SCANDAL: DALEY VOWS TOP-DOWN CONTRACT BRIBE PROBE Gumball toys Mayor vows to ‘sue anybody’ to stop cheating STORY BY FRAN SPIELMAN, PAGE 3 have toxic GE workers among 13 killed by Iraq car bomb lead levels A crowd of Iraqis carries an injured man from a damaged building after a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad Monday. The blast targeted a convoy and killed at least 13 people, including three General Electric workers. Crowds rejoiced over the attack, dancing around a charred Sucking on or swallowing trinkets body and shouting ‘‘Down with the USA!’’ Meanwhile, a Somali man has been charged with plotting to bomb an Ohio shopping mall. PAGE 6 could harm children, laboratory tests done for the Sun-Times show. Story by Stephanie Zimmermann, Page 12 MICHAEL SEGAL TRIAL: Mike Segal is like a piano player in a house of ill repute. [He] is downstairs playing furiously, pretending that he doesn’t know what’s going on upstairs when everyone around him knows what’s happening. —ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY WILLIAM HOGAN Story by Steve Warmbir, Page 8 NEWS SUPREME COURT KEEPS ‘UNDER GOD’ IN PLEDGE Page 2 DON’T OVERUSE THOSE PAIN MEDICATIONS Page 4 SPORTS CARLOS LEE HIT STREAK Tonight he tries to break Sox club record against the Marlins. 27 -AP Page 116 CONSECUTIVE GAMES 12 METRO CHICAGO SUN-TIMES ◆ TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2004 High levels of lead in children’s trinkets Toxic element can LEAD-TAINTED PRIZES harm nervous system Lab tests done for the Chicago Sun-Times found that a sampling of 25-cent and 50-cent trinkets purchased from gumball-type machines at several Chi- and retard learning cago chain or grocery stores contained lead at levels medical experts say could pose a danger if children suck on or swallow them. The government doesn’t set maximum allowable levels of leads for these children’s rings, BY STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN bracelets, charms and necklaces. But, noting the potential health hazards of Consumer Reporter ingesting lead, it does say that lead in paint at any level above 0.6 parts per million poses a danger, as does lead in soil at above 400 parts per million. The They’re hard for children to re- Sun-Times’ test results: sist, those 25- and 50-cent trinkets that beckon as kids wait with Mom Item Chain where Lead concentration Lead concentration or Dad at the checkout lines of purchased (parts per million) (by weight) grocery and discount stores. But many of those kiddie rings, Charm Kmart 180,000 ppm 18 percent bracelets and necklaces sold in Necklace Party City 210,000 ppm 21 percent gumball-type machines contain Bracelet Dominick’s 100,000 ppm 10 percent potentially toxic levels of lead, lab- oratory tests done for the Chicago Charm Kmart 99,000 ppm 9.9 percent Sun-Times show. Ring Jewel 240,000 ppm 24 percent A Sun-Times reporter bought a Charm Kmart 280,000 ppm 28 percent variety of kiddie jewelry items Charm Kmart 330,000 ppm 33 percent from machines at stores around the city and sent them to an envi- Ring Jewel 310,000 ppm 31 percent ronmental testing laboratory that Ring Jewel 270,000 ppm 27 percent analyzed the items’ lead content. Ring Jewel 340,000 ppm 34 percent The lab — EMSL Analytical Inc. Ring Osco 27,000 ppm 2.7 percent of Indianapolis — dissolved the Ring Osco 31,000 ppm 3.1 percent samples in nitric acid, then tested for lead content. The results: SOURCE: Sun-Times research, EMSL Analytical Inc. ◆ Twelve of 16 randomly pur- chased items contained potentially toxic levels of lead. there’s much danger, saying the school. “Sucking on it certainly ◆ Children’s jewelry items con- lead jewelry is coated to prevent would be sufficient, or handling it taining what experts described as lead from leaching out. and putting your hands in your high levels of lead were found at “The problem is, it depends on mouth,” she said. five of seven stores surveyed, in- how it’s tested,” Fred Simon, pres- Lead, even in small amounts, can cluding Kmart, Jewel, Dominick’s, ident of The Amusement Factory, cause irreversible neurological dam- Osco and Party City outlets. said of the test results, which age, delayed physical and mental ◆ Eight of the items had lead found one of Simon’s company’s development and attention and levels of 180,000 parts per million vending machines sold a children’s learning problems. At lower doses, or higher. There is no government bracelet that contained lead at a the damage often isn’t always clear. standard for lead content in chil- level of 100,000 parts per million. “The parents don’t know,” Binns dren’s jewelry, as long as it’s The National Bulk Vendors As- said. Only later, she said, does it be- coated and there is “no accessible sociation urged its members in come clear a child is having lead-re- lead” — a standard questioned by April to conduct safety tests on lated problems. some experts. But the federal gov- such merchandise. Simon, a past Dr. Icy Cade-Bell, a pediatrician ernment says lead in soil at levels president of the group, said he was at the University of Chicago of 400 parts per million is danger- “shocked” to hear a reporter found Hospitals, agreed, saying: “You ous, and lead-paint chips are con- a machine selling lead-tainted can’t tell by looking at them. You sidered toxic at just 0.6 parts per items in the past week. might not have any symptoms.” million. Despite the coatings, lead can Lead is stored in the bones and “It’s very much of a concern,” leach out, according to the federal slowly excreted through urine. Dr. Helen Binns, director of the Consumer Product Safety Com- Blood-lead levels are of concern lead evaluation clinic at Children’s mission, which is conducting a na- in children at above 10 micro- The Chicago Sun-Times had samples of jewelry and trinkets, like these Memorial Hospital, said of the tionwide test of its own of items grams per deciliter of blood, ex- shown above and below, tested by experts who found alarmingly high findings. “There is no need to have found in gumball-type machines. perts say. Binns said children levels of lead in them. There is no federal standard for lead content in these necklaces be on the market, “The plating should be so effec- with a blood-lead level of 25 to 29 such items as long as the lead is coated. —JOHN H. WHITE/SUN-TIMES PHOTOS where they have the potential to tive that there is virtually no micrograms who are not being ex- poison children. And their sale is leaching,” spokesman Ken Giles posed to additional lead will take blood-lead level: 132. He was geared to young children.” said. “If they cannot come up with at least two years to fall under 10 rushed to a hospital. “If we hadn’t The machines in stores typically an effective way to prevent accessi- micrograms. caught it when we did, we wouldn’t are owned by vending-machine bility, they may simply have to get Kara Burkhart’s son, Colton, have him,” his mother said. companies. Owners of machines rid of the lead. We are seeing prob- nearly died of lead poisoning last Colton’s family has had $40,000 sampled by the Sun-Times said lems with the coating.” summer, after swallowing the pen- in medical bills so far over the 25- they are getting rid of suspect If a child sucks on the jewelry or dant from a 25-cent vending-ma- cent trinket, Kara Burkhart said. pieces, most of them made in India swallows it, the consequences can chine necklace. The Redmond, What happened to the Oregon or China. Despite the newspaper’s be serious, said Binns, who is also Ore., boy, then 4, had severe stom- boy prompted a recall of 1.4 mil- tests and reports of similar findings an associate professor of pediatrics ach pain and flu-like symptoms. lion necklaces. In an earlier case, in elsewhere, one of the vending ma- and preventive medicine at North- An X-ray found the pendant 1998, Wal-Mart and Kmart volun- chine owners questioned whether western University’s medical lodged in his digestive system. His tarily pulled necklaces bearing the letters “WWJD” — for “What would Jesus do?” — after a 2-year- “It’s very much of a concern. There is no need to have these old Knoxville, Tenn., boy sucked on one and was poisoned. The fed- necklaces be on the market, where they have the potential eral consumer agency has issued one other recall of children’s jew- to poison children. And their sale is geared to young children.” elry because of lead — a million silver-colored children’s rings, re- —DR. HELEN BINNS, director, lead evaluation clinic, Children’s Memorial Hospital called in March..