Bioaccessibility of potentially toxic elements in toys and children’s jewelry

Abstract

Toys and children's jewelry may contain potentially toxic elements (PTEs), among which Pb and Cd pose the highest risks due to their toxicity and abundance. Metallic toys and jewelry form the most problematic category. Children's exposure scenarios to contaminated items include ingestion, mouthing, and dermal contact (in order of severity). Using PTE bioaccessibility (migratable fraction in physiological fluids) in risk characterization helps assessing risks more accurately than using total PTE concentrations. Key research challenges with bioaccessibility include test improvements, standardization, and in vivo validation. Legal limits should be ideally implemented on migratable (instead of total) PTE concentrations for toys, children's jewelry, and other children's goods. Furthermore, jewelry testing for legal limits should be conducted on damaged items (simulating mouthing behavior) as damage to metallic items could cause drastic increases in PTE bioaccessibility. Utilizing recycled materials for production is promising for sustainability, but contaminant bioavailability must be thoroughly investigated.