X-ray's role in uncovering dangerous toys

In recent months, there has been increasing awareness of the influx of dangerous substances, specifically lead, being found in everyday articles.

Compounding the problem even further is the difficulty in identifying which items contain harmful substances and which do not.

To address these concerns, a number of techniques can be used to identify and quantify harmful substances such as lead.

One of the growing techniques is X-Ray, specifically EDX, spectroscopy.

Unlike inductively coupled plasma (ICP) or atomic absorption (AA) spectroscopy, destructive techniques that may require intensive sample prep, EDX is a rapid, non-destructive analysis involving little to no prep work and can be applied to a variety of materials, elements and matrixes.

This functionality allows it to be easily integrated into any stage in a product's production, from the individual components to the final assembly.

In this note, the applicability of EDX in screening toy components is examined.

Three different matrixes were chosen based on the popularity of use in toy components: paint, resin, and metal.

Different amounts of lead contamination in each matrix are used to establish a linear relation between the lead and the matrix.