Is Play-Dough a Vector for Transporting and Accumulating Lead? A Pilot Study Of Daycares in Greater Vancouver

Background: The six daycares that participated in this study indicated that there is no regulation currently in place for the usage of play-dough in their daycare facilities. Play-dough can potentially accumulate and transport lead when played with. This vector has never been studied before in terms of being a route of lead exposure for children. This study aimed to determine whether or not play-dough usage in daycares may be a hazard in terms of being a route of lead exposure for children.Methods: Daycares in the Greater Vancouver were randomly selected based on convenience sampling. They were contacted by email and a follow up phone call to determine their eligibility. Play-dough was gathered in three time intervals from each daycare and analyzed semi-quantitatively. Three controls were also created to mimic the daycare’s play-dough usage, and to test whether the test kit could detect lead.Results: The results showed that one of the daycares had lead levels ranging from 1-3ppm and one of the controls showed lead levels of 1-3ppm.Discussion: The test kits proved to be effective in determining lead based on the controls. One of the daycare’s play-dough had lead levels of 1-3ppm. Thus indicating that there is a possibility that play-dough can be a vector for transporting and accumulating lead. This study does have limitations in terms of the test kit used, and the lack of blinding of the researcher testing the samples.Conclusion: The study was successful in generating an understanding of the potential link between play-dough usage and lead exposure for children. Therefore, the positive lead result found in one of the daycares can be used as a reference to guide future studies in this area.