The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-01-12
POISONOUS PAINT.
Chemists Find That Harmful COIOFs
Are Used Upon Toys for
Children.

| OF the department OIL agriculture is now
| being conducted a series of interesting
| tests of timely interest to those who
buy Christmas toys for young Amer
lea. Uncle Sam is anxious to discover
| just how much danger threatens his
youngsters who plays with highly
painted playthings. The chemist in
| charge of the investigation has col
| lected toys by the closetful and IS en-
| gagged in scraping the various kinds of
| paints from each and Analysing it 20
| learn which are poisonous and which
are not. The articles in question are Of
both foreign and domestic manufac-
| ture, and there is positive evidence as
| to whence each one came, as well as by
whom manufactured. Needless to say,
| Uncle Sam looks with contempt upon
any concern which would be guilty of
such criminal negligence as coloring
with poison anything which every ma
/ ture person knows is as apt to go into a
| baby's mouth as an armiture is to JON
an attracting magnet. A result of this
| investigation may be the establishment
of new laws in this country as to the
|
ture, and the closing of our ports to
those shipped from foreign countries
where toy painting is not strictly
looked into. As a general rule, how
ever, it is so far discovered that few
American toy manufacturers employ
poisonous paints. Many foreign con-
Germs, however, are far less conscien-
l al. o.
devices for small children which have
fallen within the scope of the investiga-
ton, those made of tin are discovered
to be the most deadly, as a class. This
is because the paint chips off much
more readily than from metallic
toys. Often when applied to the new
ly-cut teeth it falls off in great pieces.
Considering the poisons commonly
used to color tin toys and the proper
tons in which they are mixed it excited
the wonderment of those informed that
a ,oungster does not derive sufficient
venom from the average tin toy to lay
him up, granting that he bite off only
a reasonable amount of the coloring
| matter.
l
represented in this odd collection of
| specimens being subjected to the dis
figuring ordeal of having their ex-
teriors scraped and analysed. 1t would
require several columns to give in full
the diagnosis of each case made by the
inquisttive chemist. One poor crea-
ture, whose predicament should be
/ mr. cd intn hryf hn ,1,,,r; ,';-.
threatening Uncle Sans laboratories,
will serve as an illustration of many
cases. This subject, presented to the
writer, was tin clown, prone upon his
back, who, upon the actuation of ma
| ch!nery beneath him, kicked his iesrs
in the direction of revolving ball sup
ported on a rod. In the first place, his
entire makeup and that of other parts
| of the continuance was found to be
backed with white paint containing
poisonous zinc. His blue coat was
largely oxide of cobalt, rank poison.
while his yellow legs were of chromate
OF lead, also deadly. The support up
on which he lay was colored with red
lead, not the most nourishing of baby
!
and cobalt of the yellow and blue.
| Further tests with many other tin
toys showed that the principal posons
entering into their color;ng are zinc
and leads. Some blues are copper,
while whites are either lead or zinc.
| Arsenic was not found in a single case.
In some countries there are laws for
| inc he IF e.,
toys, yet the other poisons mentioned
are allowed. 1t appears that the manu-
| facturers, especially IN foreign coun-
tries utilize the pigments which are
cheapest and most convenient. Yet
there are none of these poisonous col
ors which cannot be duplicated in alb
solutely non-poisonous compounds.
| For instance, harmless white can be
made from magnesia, chalk or sulphaye
| of barium; poisonous yellow
| from one of these whites and extract
of saffron; red from equal parts of glue
and red chalk; green from saffron and
| white, and so on.
/ Many dolls with innocent faces have
| suffered the removal of their complex
|
| Dolls, generally speaking, are not
found to be poisonous. The exposed
| portions are usually of porcelain, china
| or wax, and what little paint there is
over these is either harmless water
| colors or some other pigment applied
| so thin that it cannot go far toward
causing internal complications of any
| sort, or external ones either. Poison
| GUS paint is found upon wooden toys,
but it is not applied so thick upon wood
as upon metal and does not chip easily
| from the former. Likewise upon rub
| Der playthings, the coloring matter IS
| thin like enamel, yet rubber toys are
| much more wholesome articles of Diet
when left implanted. This new investi-
| CATION, of course, is for the welfare of
the community, and will develop some
more interesting facts as it progresses.
Chicago Tribune.
MisupderstOOd.
A class was being examined in SPELL
ing the other day at a well-known