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Can Fidget Spinners ‘Kill Your Child’? – Mom Conducts Tests And Finds Dangerous Amounts Of Toxic Materials

By Danny Cox
Published on: 05:19 PST, Jun 3, 2017

There is always that one “hottest toy” that kids absolutely must have and right now, it is the fidget spinner but should parents beware? Many have spoken in support of Fidget Spinners as they are believed to help children focus and concentrate better. Others have voiced their displeasure with the toys as they are seen as a major distraction. Now, there could be even more opposition as one mom performed some tests that reveal a Fidget Spinner could possibly kill your child.

While there have been some situations where injuries came from Fidget Spinners, there haven’t been a lot of instances in which they could be truly dangerous. They seem quite harmless and are just little devices that help people release some nervous energy built up inside.

Who could fault anyone for wanting to just fiddle with something other than tapping a pencil, clicking their teeth, or crumpling up a piece of paper? Well, if the tests conducted by one mother prove to have any merit, both adults and children may end up tossing their new fad to the side.

Fidget Spinners have become the latest craze that is sweeping the nation and the world. Not only are kids playing with them, but there are adults out there who have latched onto the big-time trend and have some of their very own.

A mom blogger by the name of Tamara Rubin took on the Fidget Spinners craze and went past the dangerous warnings of choking hazards and the like. While those need to be taken seriously, Rubin felt as if there may have been much bigger dangers contained in the latest craze.

Rubin used an XRF instrument to test some examples of the Fidget Spinners and she did indeed find lead in some of them. The problem here is that she couldn’t necessarily pinpoint which brands, makes, models, or companies regularly have lead in their Fidget Spinners.

According to America’s Freedom Fighters, the amounts of lead and mercury found by Rubin is enough to “kill a child.” The “alarming amount of toxic contaminants” found in some of the Fidget Spinners could end up proving deadly for the children that play with them and are not overly careful.

For those who aren’t aware, most Fidget Spinners consist of ball bearings and blades to spin in a person’s hand. Many of the products are made by overseas companies that don’t always have strict quality controls in place for mass production.

Upon completion, those products (Fidget Spinners) are sent to the United States and sold without further testing.

fidget spinners dangerous mom tests lead mercury
[Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]

Inhabitat broke down things a bit more with Rubin’s tests on the Fidget Spinners to detail more of what she did. Rubin tested three spinners with an XRF instrument used to test the levels of lead in items. Two of the Fidget Spinners were found to be lead-free, but the third one had “very high levels of lead and some mercury.”

In addition, Rubin took apart a Fidget Spinner that contained LED lights and found lead and mercury in it as well in these quantities:

  • 19,000 parts per million (ppm) of lead
  • 1,000 ppm of mercury
  • 334 ppm of lead and 155 of mercury in the paint of a LED Fidget Spinner
  • 2,452 ppm of lead and 1,562 ppm of mercury in unpainted metal base

Researchers and scientists state that safe levels of lead and mercury in children’s toys are “under 90 ppm” which makes these numbers quite staggering. Those amounts could prove to be fatal if any pieces are swallowed.

Further tests on more Fidget Spinners found others to have extremely high amounts of toxic materials with one from Yomaxer to contain 42,880 ppm of lead.

Just last week, the BBC reported that Irish customs seized more than 200,000 Fidget Spinners due to safety concerns. Most of the issues come with choking hazards on small parts, but these new tests could lead to greater concerns in the future.

Lead and mercury contained in one out of every three Fidget Spinners? It may not be that common, but mom Tamara Rubin did do some home tests to find out that not all Fidget Spinners are lead-free as many toy companies claim to practice for all their products. Kids have had to deal with some dangers from the toys as they have caused injuries and lacerations, but killing a child? The toys with dangerous levels of lead and mercury could prove deadly, but it’s going to take a lot more research

The toys with dangerous levels of lead and mercury could prove deadly, but it’s going to take a lot more research to determine which Fidget Spinners are dangerous.

[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]

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