14 June 2026, Quezon City. To protect children from being exposed to lead, a potent neurotoxin, in products marketed for their use, the EcoWaste Coalition urged the health authorities to regulate lead in accessible components of children’s products.
The non-profit group, a steadfast advocate for children’s protection against hazardous chemicals, made this policy recommendation to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), following the discovery of back-to-school essentials such as backpacks and lunch bags with highly leaded parts.
The metallic zipper pulls on these lunch bags contain lead at levels up to 25,000 ppm.
Through a letter sent to the FDA last June 9, the group requested the agency to come up with a policy that will regulate lead in accessible components of children’s products, including zipper teeth, sliders, and pull tabs in school bags, buttons, grommets, and accessories of kids’ clothing, and other easily reached parts of articles marketed for children’s use.
The group had earlier revealed the detection of lead in the zippers of backpacks and lunch bags purchased as part of the group’s “balik-eskwela” children’s health and safety campaign. A portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) device was used to identify and measure lead in zipper sliders and pullers made of metal.
Out of 46 backpacks bought and analyzed, 17 had metallic zipper parts containing lead between 12,040 ppm and 30,320 ppm. Six out of the 11 lunch bags were also found laden with lead from 13,360 ppm to 25,670 ppm.
The round zipper puller of this unofficial Marvel kiddie bag contains 23,930 ppm of lead, posing lead exposure hazard, especially if it gets detached and ingested by a child.
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of the USA limits lead in accessible components of children’s products, including zippers, to not more than 100 ppm of total lead by weight. The Consumer Product Safety Act of Canada sets 90 ppm as the total lead content limit in accessible parts of consumer products.
According to the EcoWaste Coalition, “controlling lead in the zipper teeth, sliders and pulls, buttons, grommets, and accessories in products marketed for children’s use, including all types of school bags, school uniforms, kids’ apparel, and other products marketed for children’s use, will protect vulnerable children from a highly preventable source of lead poisoning.”
“Young children unknowingly expose themselves to lead when they zip up their clothes, bags, and other items if the zipper contains lead in the alloy or in the paint used,” adding “lead in metal or paint, if ingested, can harm brain development and cause other health effects.”
“Zippers and other accessible components of children’s products need to be regulated because children may put them in their mouths,” the EcoWaste Coalition said. “It is also possible for zipper components and apparel buttons, and accessories to be detached and accidentally swallowed by a child, which can pose severe lead poisoning risks.”
To emphasize the importance of regulating lead in accessible parts of products marketed for children’s use, the group recalled an acute lead poisoning case, which led to the tragic death of a child. In 2006, a four-year-old boy from Minnesota, USA, accidentally swallowed a heart-shaped metallic charm attached to a bracelet that came free from the purchase of various styles of Reebok children’s footwear, causing acute lead poisoning that claimed the boy’s life. Some 300,000 units of the leaded bracelets were recalled, and Reebok paid a US$ one million civil penalty for violations of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.
Currently, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order No. 2013-24 bans lead in the production of paints, as well as in the manufacture of toys and school supplies. Paints and similar surface coatings used on toys and related products must not exceed the maximum limit of 90 ppm.
To complement the lead paint ban in toys and school supplies, the EcoWaste Coalition urged the FDA to issue a specific regulatory measure that will control total lead in accessible parts of children’s products, such as, but not limited to, zipper teeth, sliders and pull tabs, buttons, grommets, and accessories.
The group also recommended mandatory labeling of children’s products, including the full disclosure of their chemical composition, to inform and guide consumers in making sound purchasing decisions.
Backpacks, which are often sold with zero labeling information, may contain accessible parts laden with high levels of toxic lead.
As stated in FDA Advisory No. 2020-1585, issued as a result of the EcoWaste Coalition’s discovery of high lead levels in 37 imported spray paints, “lead is a cumulative toxicant that affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children and can suffer profound and permanent adverse health effects, particularly affecting the development of the brain and nervous system.”
“(Lead) also causes long-term harm in adults, including increased risk of high blood pressure and kidney damage. Exposure of pregnant women to high levels of lead can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, and low birth weight. There is no permissible level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects,” the FDA said.
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Reference:
https://chemical.emb.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DAO-2013-24-CCO-Lead.pdf
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2018-83/page-1.html
https://www.cpsc.gov/Business–Manufacturing/Business-Education/Lead/Total-Lead-Content
https://www.fda.gov.ph/fda-advisory-no-2020-1585-public-health-warning-against-the-purchase-and-use-of-spray-paints-containing-significant-levels-of-toxic-heavy-metal-lead-pb/
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5512a4.htm
https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2006/Reebok-Recalls-Bracelet-Linked-to-Childs-Lead-Poisoning-Death
https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2008/Reebok-to-Pay-Record-1000000-Civil-Penalty-for-Violation-of-Federal-Hazardous-Substances-Act
