Old plastic toys safe? Help!

[Teeeee]

I need some advice as I've read some alarming things about old plastic toys potentially containing lead or even arsenic! The problem is when I visit my mother in law she kindly and excitedly brings out all her old toys which she has kept over the years for my little 10 month old, and all he wants to do is put anything he's given to play with in his mouth! Reading about the potential danger of these toys is horrific and I have no idea how to tell my mother in law that I dont want my baby to play with them. My husband thinks I'm being over worried and really doesnt want me to say anything to his mum.. what do I do? Am I being over worried or does anyone know more about the safety of old toys? How should I speak to mother in law? Help!

Lead and arsenic in toys and paint were 50 years ago or more, weren't they?

How old are the toys?

Is that right? I think they're quite old.. they look 60s/70s I think.

Oh no. This says seventies and eighties;

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/toys-from-the-seventies-and-eighties-could-be-poisoning-your-children-10125415.html

Could your OH send the article?

Oh gosh! Baby has chewed on one of the toys- have I put him in danger? OH is very resistant I think I have to be the one to say something. I'll ask him to send it to her but I think an argument about it is more likely to happen.

I would try not to panic too much about any exposure so far - most of these things are dose related so unless your child is spending days on end sucking the toys the exposure level is likely to be very low. The article only says those chemicals have been found - if there were clear cases of arsenic poisoning caused by playing with granny's toys the article would almost certainly have mentioned them. I think the solution to this depends on how often you visit - the putting everything in mouth stage doesn't last long.

Also, I was curious and had a quick skim of the scientific article the newspaper article was based on and it says that the old toys they studied were often visibly worn or damaged around the edges so I suspect this might make a difference to exposure levels too.

Ah thank you @Danascully2. That does make me feel a lot better.. Do you maybe know how long the 'put everything in the mouth phase' generally last? I guess if we were only occassionally visiting it wouldnt be a problem but we see granny sort of every week or every other week which isnt hugely regularly but perhaps regularly enough? Its really hard to know whether to have an awkward potentially upsetting conversation about it.. but I certainly would rather that than put baby in unecessary risk.

My 18 month old doesn't often put non food things in his mouth now - occasionally he will take a fancy to something and have a chomp but it's not often now. Good luck with deciding what to do - it's often tricky to know where to draw the line as zero risk in our lives isn't realistic but obviously we all want to keep risks as low as reasonably possible.