Lead in Christmas Lights!

[judecorp]

What the heck next? We just finished taking a ton of pictures of our kid sitting in, touching, playing with, and almost chomping on Christmas lights.

Ugh.

Comments

[katishna.livejournal.com]

I thought they always knew xmas lights had lead in them. I think I knew because our tree came with a warning that it causes cancer or something in California (but what about ohio?).

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, you know, I have been shopping online for gifts and a lot of them have a California warning about lead. And I thought the same thing - does it not have lead in MA?

I thought the LIGHTS had lead, not the plastic stuff on the wires. Oops.

[skreeky]

Every package of twinkle lights for as long as I can remember has had pretty prominent lead warnings on it, complete with instructions for washing hands after handling them in any way.

This is not helpful at all if you don't store your twinkle lights in the original packaging, which no one does.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I am one of those people who DOES keep the original packaging for my lights, /and/ I actually put the lights back in the boxes when I put them away. I'm not even lying. I am that anal.

So I pulled out my boxes of lights - I have four different brands, all from one discount store or another (I tended to collect lights off-season from Big Lots and stuff like that), and only ONE of them has a lead warning. Maybe the others are too old? I dunno.

But there it is.

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen, the LED lights that are now being sold are lead-free and fairly cheap....

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah? Perhaps next year we will invest in more lights. (By "next year" I mean in January when the sales come around, heh.) Next year, the kid will be mobile.

[cappucinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Clearly you should have gotten a menorah instead.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

True. Then I could have SET THE BABY ON FIRE!! :)

[cappucinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Well that is the Jewish custom.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Ha!

[skatured.livejournal.com]

I didn't know it had lead in it either!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Well now you do!

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

The news yesterday had a story about one of the county commissioners and her husband putting up their tree and seeing the California lead warning on the tree, and they were wondering why a) there's no lead warning for Ohio and b) the trees are even sold if they have lead content.

I could go into b), since lead is strong yet malleable, and that allows you to bend the branches to look more natural, etc. And anyone who has been putting up their artificial tree had better darned well wash their hands afterwards, and not just because the lead content. It's likely dusty and dirty from sitting in a box in a crawl space or attic for 11 months. Common sense, people!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I think there is some sort of proposition or legislation in California that says they have to put possible lead warnings on EVERYTHING. I was ordering gifts online and I was looking at some handmade, hand painted things and there was a "California Lead Warning" on all of them.

Supposedly the lead on the outer casings helps with the fire retardation? Who knows?

What next?

[cfred.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be wary of any pencils that are made in China. If the paint doesn't have it, then the lead might contain lead. :)

Re: What next?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Goon!

[evewasframed.livejournal.com]

I never knew about the lead in lights until a few weeks ago when I found myself bored enough to read the box while my mom strung them on the tree.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Heh, I guess that's one way to find out!

I checked all of our boxes. Out of four, only one is labeled with a lead warning. Harumph! I feel like I got shafted!

[afullmoon.livejournal.com]

I was so mad when I heard that. Kind of made me glad we didn't have time to put up the tree.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh there is ALWAYS time to put up the tree! :)

[(Anonymous)]

/British Snark/

How could you plug them in if they didn't have a lead?

/End British Snark/

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Silly Brit!