percentage of toxic trace elements pb, cr and cd in certain plastic toys, isfahan city

introduction: recent investigations have detected the presence of significant levels of heavy metals (chromium, lead and cadmium) in toys and other pvc products manufactured for children. in some countries, addition of compounds containing toxic metals to toys are limited or prohibited. methods: to evaluate the safety of some of the plastic toys in the city of isfahan with respect to toxic trace metals, pb, cr and cd, 75 samples of three types of toys were collected from the toy shop’s and were digested with acid with the two methods isiri and astm. the heavy metals were determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. variance analysis and t-test were used for data analysis. results: the result of the study showed that the products tested contained lead, chromium and cadmium and the highest and lowest concentration were related to pb and cd, respectively. the statistical analysis of the samples showed that there are no significant differences between astm and isiri digestion methods. the study revealed that none of the heavy metals in the toy samples exceeded the recommended standard levels. highest average concentration of pb and cd were related to toys with green color and the highest cr concentration was related to yellow toys in this study. conclusion: extensive studies are required to evaluate the quality of the toys being used by children and the toxic trace elements should be eliminated from the plastic materials used for making toys.