http://www.wrex.com/News/index.php?ID=24651WREX-TV, Rockford (IL) December 13, 2007
"Maximillian is not only Harvey Weinstein's best friend, he is his big fuzzy child.
"The dog loves playing with toys.
"The recent recalls of Chinese made children's toys contaminated with lead paint had Harvey wondering about Maxie's toys, knowing they go directly into his mouth.
"Animal neurologist Dr. Chad West of the Animal Medical Center of New York thinks the concern is valid.
""Anything from a country that might have lower standards and potentially from lower consumer product safety, we'd have to look out for," Dr. West.
"There are no federal standards for lead safety in pet toys and there is no oversight. "It really is up to the owner to be vigilant and if your pet has ingested lead toxins, doctors say the signs will be obvious.
""Oftentimes with short term high dose exposure, pets will become very ill. They may have a lot more of the vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, overall depression whereas with chronic low dose administration or low dose exposure there may be common neurological manifestations such as seizures and things like that, behavior changes," said Dr. West.
"With such dire consequences, we took our sampling of 17 pet toys to Exclusive Testing Labs in the Bronx.
"Arthur Morales, a certified risk assessor used an X-ray fluorescence device to scan each toy for lead content.
"All turned up negative results, and all but one toy was made in China.
""All the readings were really zero, negative means below one, but these readings were closer to zero, which means there wasn't even a trace of lead," said Morales.
"Both the lead risk assessor and the animal neurologist we interviewed told us they had seen cases of lead poisonings in animals, but not from toys.
"Those cases were from home improvement and renovation projects.
""People who did renovation in their house. Once it was done they noticed their pet dog was acting very strange and it turns out they poisoned the dog. It ingested a lot of the dust from the construction activities and they had a blood test taken and sure enough it had ingested enough lead, debris, and dust to affect its blood and its behavior," explained Morales.
"The sampling was small, but it does highlight an interesting paradox for parents and pet owners.
"Toys you take away from your children should not become pet toys either."
