Instrument to Identify Hazardous Children's Products that Could Cause Lead Poison

描述(申请人提供)：摘要铅及其化合物已被评为对人类健康构成最大威胁的主要化学品之一。在从电子产品、家居用品到玩具等多种消费品中都发现了大量的铅。1997年，消费品安全委员会报告确定并采取行动，减少或消除儿童可以接触到铅的一些消费品的铅中毒风险。这些严重关注的产品包括进口蜡笔、进口非光滑乙烯基迷你百叶窗、游乐场设备、儿童珠宝和服装。消费品中使用的铅含量是有监管限制的。然而，许多是自愿的，大多数只适用于为六岁或更小的儿童制造的物品。不幸的是，铅确实找到了进入玩具的途径。2006年2月，一名四岁男孩在吞下一块含铅的玩具后死于铅中毒。这一悲剧导致了近100万件类似玩具的召回。目前还没有一种实用、经济有效的方法来测试消费品中的铅含量。现有的技术要么非常昂贵，要么必须将样本送到实验室。因此，一种实用、成本效益高、质量保证的技术可能有助于防止今后铅中毒导致的疾病和死亡。这项拟议的工作将审查设计一种非常便宜、操作简单的手持仪器的可行性，该仪器基于一种革命性的探测器技术。拟议的仪器将由制造商、分销商、公共安全人员，可能还有零售店和家长使用，以检查商品中的铅含量。尽管在21世纪看起来不太可能，但铅的主要来源之一仍然是儿童产品和玩具。这项申请建议研究和开发可用于测试消费产品的铅含量的技术。其结果将是一种非常便宜、安全和易于使用的仪器，可以在儿童产品到达商店货架之前测试其是否存在铅。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Summary Lead and its compounds have been rated as one of the leading chemicals posing the greatest threat to human health. Significant amounts of lead are found in a multitude of consumer goods, ranging from electronics, household goods, to toys. In 1997, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported identifying and taking action to reduce or eliminate the risk of lead poisoning from a number of consumer products in which lead was accessible to children. These products of serious concern include imported crayons, imported non-glossy vinyl miniblinds, playground equipment, children's jewelry and clothing. There are regulatory limits to the content of lead used in consumer products. However, many are voluntary and most apply only to items that are manufactured for use by very young children six years of age or younger. Unfortunately, lead does find it's way into toys. In February 2006, a four year old boy died of lead poisoning after swallowing a piece of a toy containing lead. This tragedy has resulted in a recall of nearly one million similar toys. There is no practical, cost effective method for testing consumer products for lead content. Existing techniques are either very expensive or samples must be sent to laboratories. Thus, the availability of a practical, cost-effective, quality assurance technology could help prevent future illness and deaths from lead poisoning. This proposed effort will examine the feasibility of designing a very inexpensive, simple to operate, hand-held instrument, based on a revolutionary detector technology. The proposed instrument will be used by manufacturers, distributors, public safety personnel, and possibly retail stores and parents, to examine goods for lead content.Narrative Lead and its compounds pose a great threat to human health, especially in children. As unlikely as it seems in the 21st century, one of the remaining major sources of lead is in children's products and toys. This application proposes to investigate and develop technology that can be used to test consumer products for lead content. The result will be a very inexpensive, safe, and easy to use instrument to test for the presence of lead in children's products, before they reach store shelves.