Getting the Lead Out

摘要

Among the most strictly enforced consumer-protection laws are those banning lead in toys. Lead is an insidious poison: It's slow-acting and results not in immediately noticeable effects like rashes but in behavioral problems and a slightly lowered IQ. Even a very small amount of it is harmful. Yet a few decades ago, a lot of the most popular playthings were made from solid lead, including tin soldiers.Considering all the lead toys produced in those days, tin soldiers sound pretty benign. "Tin" is a something of a misnomer, though. The soldiers were not made primarily of tin but of a lead-tin alloy containing 60 to 75 percent lead, with the rest being mostly tin and antimony. Sometimes they were cast from "hard lead," a group of alloys typically found in bullets, which contain nearly 95 percent lead with just a bit of antimony for hardness.