Hannah Montana Toys Tainted With Lead?

Lab Says 9 Of 28 It Tested Had High Levels; Disney, Which Owns Montana Character, Denies It

(CBS)  There are hundreds of Hannah Montana products on store shelves. Last year, their sales totaled about $100 million.

But, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes, they might not all be safe.

The Hannah Montana character is so popular, her TV show spawned a sold-out nationwide concert series and a movie.

It's no wonder Hannah Montana's face is on so much that "tween" girls own, from backpacks to purses to wallets.

But, like so many vinyl products made in China, some of these have been discovered to contain lead, according to Charles Margulis of the independent California lab, the Center for Environmental Health.

"We purchased 28 Hannah Montana products," he told Hughes, "and of those 28, nine had high levels of lead."

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To see key parts of the lab's report, which names names of the products in question, click here.

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The center, which has tested everything from lunch boxes to baby bibs, says it found that the paint and vinyl of five products lead levels higher than fededal standards permit, and four more exceeded the level The American Academy of Pediatrics has set for toys.

The center says a Girls Rock backpack from Walmart.com and a Secret Star wallet from Toys 'R Us had lead content of 1,800 parts per million-to-8,300 parts per million. The federal standard of safety for lead in paint is 600 parts per million.

Washington has set that level for lead for paint, but hasn't set one for toys. The American Academy of Pediatrics has set a standard for toys, and it's much lower than the government's lead-in-paint standard -- only 40 parts per million. Other experts say there's no safe level of lead for something a child might put in his or her mouth.

Offcials of Disney, which owns the Montana character, vehemently deny their products have high concentrations of lead, saying their tests show the products fall well below government standards.

But Margulis warns that, "Lead is toxic to teenagers, to young children, and even young adults, especially young women."

One-hundred-twelve toy products were recalled last year due to concerns about their lead content. While 19 states have laws banning the use of lead in packaging of children's products, only Illinois bans lead outright in those products.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission wouldn't comment for this story, and hasn't announced any recalls in this case.

A bill to beef up the CPSC is making its way through Congress. It could lead to an eventual ban on lead content in toys.

In the meantime, there's little a parent can do but watch for recalls or buy a home-testing kit. But such a kit will only show the presence of lead, not how much lead is on a toy or in its paint.

[jjsager]

To the comments about Hannah Montana not being a good role model is BS!! My girls love her and to be perfectly honest, I watch her show as well. She''s polite, honest, doesn''t dress revealing and tries to send a good message to our kids.

And as far as buying cheapo toys from Walmart....Why don''t you send some money this way and maybe we all can afford to buy expensive toys that aren''t any different than the cheaper ones. YOUR PAYING FOR A NAME NOT THE QUALITY.....DUH!!!!!!

[truthbknown1]

Don%u2019t be fooled by this vinyl hating fool. CEH is not interested in protecting anyone except its Greenpeace contributions. The hand held XRF gun he is using is only good for screening for lead presence. Lead must be properly tested at an accredited laboratory to a Federal standard. The federal standard for lead is appropriate at 0.06%. If you wave a rag in the air you will pick up more lead then can be absorbed from these products. CEH is miss leading you in thinking the paint on these bags contains lead. The bag he was testing did not even contain paint. Most vinyl contains minimal amounts of lead. Lead in Vinyl cannot be digested, if you completely ate 1000 Hanna Montana bags you still would not absorb any lead. Notice at the end of Greens uneducated speech he plugged the avoidance of any vinyl products. The entire interior of your car is made of Vinyl. Swimming pool liners, blood bags, IV tubes, and many toys are all made from safe slightly leaded Vinyl. CEH is picking on Hanna Montana because she is a hot propriety that can get lots of press coverage for there unimportant, twisted cause. Notice he only tested 28 Hanna Montana products. Why not test others? Won%u2019t get any press coverage that%u2019s why. Why not go after a real cause like helping widows and orphans and the poor?

[walt1944-2009]

Both Disney Productions and Billy Ray Cyrus are horrified that the CPSC claims Hannah Montana toys contain huge amounts of lead. Disney Productions, however, claims that the toys have only "a little" lead in them, while Billy Ray is more concerned what this news will do to his profit margin!

As far as the 15 year old Mile Cyrus is concerned, she is continuing to make tons of money from Hannah Montana concert tours and riding the wave of success and expecting a movie contract from Disney at any moment. All this, at a time when most kids her age are in high school and their parents are hoping their kids will know how to read and write when they graduate!!!

LONG LIVE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!!!!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!
sig heil (more of the same), McCain????

[melvinky]

i have to disagree with the last comment left, we as parents control what our children wear and do, i have not seen hannah wear anything that i wouldnt put on my 4 year old nor my 8 year old. If you think she is a bad influence on our children i sure would hate to see what you think of others!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lilbambella]

Hannah Montana is a terrible influence on young girls - trying to make six and seven year old girls wear *** body bearing clothes and act grown... Ha! and now she''s going to give them all lead poisoining so they''ll all have learning disabilities... Great!

[cofamily6]

The man that you got to do your report on the Early Show this morning was one of the worst reporters that I have ever seen. His report was completely uninformative. The man couldn''t hardly spit out his words and stumbled over "um''s". The one thing that he was able to spit out was his political agenda. How are we to trust what he had to say, when he could not even get the lead detector to work correctly. I thought that the purpose behind good reporting and ethics was to be non-bias and to have the facts straight. I just happened to have recorded the report because I thought it was going to provide my husband and I with information pertaining to a recall, that would directly effect our family, of four girls. What a disappointing story and I hope the reporter was not paid for his poor coverage and for spouting out his personal political agenda. I quickly jumped on the web and went to US RECALLS. It stated a mind blowing amount of recalls, with the disclosure that more recalls come in everyday and sometimes every hour.
Why do we, as consumers, continue to put up with this? Why don''t we stand up to the stores and manufactures and demand change. Don''t blame it on the administration-it takes a nation to demand change from the manufactures and the people selling the products. When a kitchen provides bad food, they take the fall. We have good regulations in this country, why not make the outlets responsible to test their products prior to selling or face lawsuits.

A Colorado Family

[cofamily6]

The man that you got to do your report on the Early Show this morning was one of the worst reporters that I have ever seen. His report was completely uninformative. The man couldn''t hardly spit out his words and stumbled over "um''s". The one thing that he was able to spit out was his political agenda. How are we to trust what he had to say, when he could not even get the lead detector to work correctly. I thought that the purpose behind good reporting and ethics was to be non-bias and to have the facts straight. I just happened to have recorded the report because I thought it was going to provide my husband and I with information pertaining to a recall, that would directly effect our family, of four girls. What a disappointing story and I hope the reporter was not paid for his poor coverage and for spouting out his personal political agenda. I quickly jumped on the web and went to US RECALLS. It stated a mind blowing amount of recalls, with the disclosure that more recalls come in everyday and sometimes every hour.
Why do we, as consumers, continue to put up with this? Why don''t we stand up to the stores and manufactures and demand change. Don''t blame it on the administration-it takes a nation to demand change from the manufactures and the people selling the products. When a kitchen provides bad food, they take the fall. We have good regulations in this country, why not make the outlets responsible to test their products prior to selling or face lawsuits.

A Colorado Family

[cofamily6]

The man that you got to do your report on the Early Show this morning was one of the worst reporters that I have ever seen. His report was completely uninformative. The man couldn''t hardly spit out his words and stumbled over "um''s". The one thing that he was able to spit out was his political agenda. How are we to trust what he had to say, when he could not even get the lead detector to work correctly. I thought that the purpose behind good reporting and ethics was to be non-bias and to have the facts straight. I just happened to have recorded the report because I thought it was going to provide my husband and I with information pertaining to a recall, that would directly effect our family, of four girls. What a disappointing story and I hope the reporter was not paid for his poor coverage and for spouting out his personal political agenda. I quickly jumped on the web and went to US RECALLS. It stated a mind blowing amount of recalls, wi

[cofamily6]

The man that you got to do your report on the Early Show this morning was one of the worst reporters that I have ever seen. His report was completely uninformative. The man couldn''t hardly spit out his words and stumbled over "um''s". The one thing that he was able to spit out was his political agenda. How are we to trust what he had to say, when he could not even get the lead detector to work correctly. I thought that the purpose behind good reporting and ethics was to be non-bias and to have the facts straight. I just happened to have recorded the report because I thought it was going to provide my husband and I with information pertaining to a recall, that would directly effect our family, of four girls. What a disappointing story and I hope the reporter was not paid for his poor coverage and for spouting out his personal political agenda. I quickly jumped on the web and went to US RECALLS. It stated a mind blowing amount of recalls, wi

[cofamily6]

The man that you got to do your report on the Early Show this morning was one of the worst reporters that I have ever seen. His report was completely uninformative. The man couldn''t hardly spit out his words and stumbled over "um''s". The one thing that he was able to spit out was his political agenda. How are we to trust what he had to say, when he could not even get the lead detector to work correctly. I thought that the purpose behind good reporting and ethics was to be non-bias and to have the facts straight. I just happened to have recorded the report because I thought it was going to provide my husband and I with information pertaining to a recall, that would directly effect our family, of four girls. What a disappointing story and I hope the reporter was not paid for his poor coverage and for spouting out his personal political agenda. I quickly jumped on the web and went to US RECALLS. It stated a mind blowing amount of recalls, wi

[cofamily6]

The man that you got to do your report on the Early Show this morning was one of the worst reporters that I have ever seen. His report was completely uninformative. The man couldn''t hardly spit out his words and stumbled over "um''s". The one thing that he was able to spit out was his political agenda. How are we to trust what he had to say, when he could not even get the lead detector to work correctly. I thought that the purpose behind good reporting and ethics was to be non-bias and to have the facts straight. I just happened to have recorded the report because I thought it was going to provide my husband and I with information pertaining to a recall, that would directly effect our family, of four girls. What a disappointing story and I hope the reporter was not paid for his poor coverage and for spouting out his personal political agenda. I quickly jumped on the web and went to US RECALLS. It stated a mind blowing amount of recalls, wi

[cofamily6]

The man that you got to do your report on the Early Show this morning was one of the worst reporters that I have ever seen. His report was completely uninformative. The man couldn''t hardly spit out his words and stumbled over "um''s". The one thing that he was able to spit out was his political agenda. How are we to trust what he had to say, when he could not even get the lead detector to work correctly. I thought that the purpose behind good reporting and ethics was to be non-bias and to have the facts straight. I just happened to have recorded the report because I thought it was going to provide my husband and I with information pertaining to a recall, that would directly effect our family, of four girls. What a disappointing story and I hope the reporter was not paid for his poor coverage and for spouting out his personal political agenda. I quickly jumped on the web and went to US RECALLS. It stated a mind blowing amount of recalls, with the disclosure that more recalls come in everyday and sometimes every hour.
Why do we, as consumers, continue to put up with this? Why don''t we stand up to the stores and manufactures and demand change. Don''t blame it on the administration-it takes a nation to demand change from the manufactures and the people selling the products. When a kitchen provides bad food, they take the fall. We have good regulations in this country, why not make the outlets responsible to test their products prior to selling or face lawsuits.

A Colorado Family

[lochlan-2009]

"Disney, Which Owns Montana Character, Denies It"

Well, it shouldn''t be to hard to tell if they are lieing. Either the toys do or they don''t contain high levels of lead. Just make sure the media blasts whom ever is lieing out of the water, for all to see, when the truth is proven.

[culturechang]

What does the Consumer Product Safety Commission do? It is supposed to protect us from this before it even gets into the US.

[djberson]

Stop buying cheapo Chinese junk from Walmart, and you won''t have to worry about it.

[rf35]

They come from China and contain lead. How is this is a surprise?

[txstarr]

I saw this story on the television this am, along with the person speaking about it making the comment ''the problem is with the current administration...'' BS!!!! The problem is with companies outsourcing to other countries so they can pocket more money. Quit sending products out of the USA to be made and you won''t have to worry about lead content!!!