Friday night my wife and I were discussing the lead paint-related recalls with a friend. As we discussed the recalls and the media coverage of them, we kept coming back to one question: why is lead paint used at all anymore?
Fortunately, the August 15 Explainer column at Slate answers this very question.
Basically, lead is used in paint because “its bright, durable, flexible, fast-drying, and cheap.” The article goes on to say that:
In 1978, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission made it illegal to use any paint containing more than 0.06 percent lead for residential structures, hospitals, and children’s products. But it’s still widely used on bridges, tanks, towers, heavy equipment, parking lots, road signs, and other large-scale projects. There’s still lead in most consumer paints, too-just much, much less. Many paint manufacturers now use safer alternatives like zinc, although it doesn’t quite match lead’s luster or strength.
The short article has more information on common uses of lead paint, but for toy manufacturers, it seems to come down to one benefit: it’s cheaper, so toys are less expensive to make. However, I wonder how many parents think the savings are worth their child’s health.