Thank you for the article. The important question is probably not who benefits from burying the facts, but how much it's going to cost to fix it. I wonder if the EPA and the CDC aren't becoming like the FDA, which has recently be plagued with accusations of being in bed with Big Pharma, and of not adequately monitoring food safety.

The fact is that lead comes from many sources, from environmental (air and water) to processed cocoa. While it's important to hold the government responsible for guarding children's health, I wonder if Mattel's toy recall is just the tip of the iceberg. It's definitely irresponsible of them to use lead-based paint at all. Is it asking too much to merely learn the truth about lead?

Naturegirl, I agree that lead paint on toys is a terrible idea and should be eliminated. But as a worker in the field I can tell you that the majority of current lead poisoning cases (roughly 90%) occur in children living in older homes. If toys and cocoa powder, etc. were the prime culprit we'd see a lot more poisoning in newer (1978=lead free) homes, but we don't.