My Review of Melissa and Doug's Bead Maze- Potential Arsenic Hazard!

As you all know I try to limit the amount of plastic toys in my home because of BPA seepage and all of that yucky stuff. I've been investing in wooden toys for Amaya but recently found Healthytoys.org and was shocked when one of her toys came up with a Medium rating on the hazard chemical list. Here's my review of the yous that I submitted to epinions. As always research toys and website before to make the determination for your family.

PS I purchased this gift for Amaya myself so don't worry if you bought her toys. I just thought my research was interesting....



I purchased this toy for my daughter and she played with it off and on for a few months. She liked to push the beads together to hear them click and I often put the suction on our floor so she had better control of the toy. She also liked to spin the beads although the yellow square bead would often stick since it was a tad bit too large to smoothly slide between the wires. At this point she likes to drag her dollies and teddies around more than a bead maze so it has been sporadically used since it is very easy to suction the bottom to the floor. I should also say that the suction is very strong and my kid can't remove it once it's stuck to a surface.

My problem with this toy is that it was tested by Healthytoys.org and scored a Medium on the level of chemical expsoure rating score. I did some more research and found that this product has a 51 parts per million of Aresenic in the the red wire. Now I know that toys have to go through vigorous testing before they make it to market but toys with aresenic are not allowed in my home, and especially not in my child's mouth.

I want to note that Healthytoys.org is a non profit organization and does not test to see if any chemicals will seep out of the toy nor do they test to see what kinds of reactions children will have if they play with this toy. The Toy Industry Association claims that Healthytoys.org is misleading because "The mere presence of inaccessible substances in trace amounts does not mean a product is harmful." However just knowing the arsenic was there was enough for me and I removed the toy from her room and replaced with a different kind of toy. I personally believe that it's important to do your own research on the issue and then determine what is right for your family.