HealthyToys.org: Your Guide to Holiday Toy Shopping

This time of year, millions of parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles spend hours clamoring through shopping malls trying to find the best toys for the children on our Holiday lists. Before battling the crowds this year, concerned shoppers need to visit HealthyToys.org to make sure that the toys that they are grabbing are safe.

While I do not currently have any children, I will be a father in late May, or early April. The anticipation that is growing on a daily basis is also leading to concern over the amount of toys that have been recalled from China and other foreign countries. When my daughter is born, I want to make sure that what she is playing with will not harm her in any way. This concern has led me to HealthyToys.org.

HealthyToys.org is a non-profit organization that tests toys to make sure that they do not contain any harmful chemicals that could harm children. Their online database grows on a daily basis and contains hundreds of toys that they have reviewed.

Using the top technology, HealthyToys.org can test for levels of lead, cadmium, chlorine, arsenic, mercury, and other harmful components. It first rates the toys to see if they are high, medium, or low in content of these components. It will then let you know how many parts per million each of these components rate.

I took a look through the list and was very surprised to see some of the popular toys that I have seen on store shelves as being high in some of these components. HealthyToys.org has helped to ease a lot of the trepidation that I have been feeling as an expecting father during this time of multiple recalls of toys.

HealthyToys.org has also listed their top ten toys, and their bottom ten toys for a quick perusal. What is interesting is that many of the toys that are currently the biggest losers on their lists are still on store shelves. The government has not stepped in yet to recall these toys. Hopefully they will do something soon.