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.