A warning is a feeble response. Health Canada is effectively asking Canadians to protect themselves from products than never should have made it into our homes and into our children's mouths in the first place. They might as well tell us to wear garlic around our necks. Lead is the most studied of any toxic substance, and the health effects are well known and well documented. Furthermore, lead is not metabolised, but is absorbed by the body, building up in tissue, bones, and teeth.
Subsequent exposures increase the levels of lead in the body.
In children, effects of lead poisoning range from hearing loss, stunted growth, aggression, behaviour problems and learning disabilities at very low blood lead levels to anemia, encephalopathy, and even death at high levels. The Center for Disease control has said that lead poisoning is one of the most common and preventable pediatric health problems today. Unless the Canadian government takes decisive action right away, it will have utterly abrogated its responsibility to protect Canada's children.