Yet Another Thing to Worry About: Lead in Bounce Houses

Beware the bounce house! The jumpy house and its various iterations are seemingly ubiquitous these days at kids' birthday parties and public events. Until now parents only had to worry about germs (from other people's kids, not yours certainly) and children klunking their heads together mid-bounce. But today California Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brown the Center for Environmental Health filed a lawsuit against various bounce house manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers over high levels of lead found in many of the inflatable houses.

It seems the vinyl used in constructing the bounce houses is often contaminated with lead, depending on where it was made. (China? Just guessing.) Lead levels on tested examples ranged from 5,000–29,000 parts per million (ppm). By way of comparison, Federal limits for lead in kids' products are 90 ppm for painted surface and 300 ppm for everything else.

Read more about it at The Bay Citizen and KTVU.com.

(Photo: navets via Flickr)