Popular websites like Pinterest are brimming these days with adorable photos of babies wrapped in Christmas lights. In some, the cute little ones are even chewing on the sparkling lights. The problem? Christmas lights are often extremely high in lead, which can lead to brain damage and even death.
Examples of Christmas photos with babies playing with Christmas lights can be found at photography blogs and parenting forums, with adorable looking photos like this and this and this and this and this and this.
On the popular website Pinterest, dozens of pictures like these have been pinned thousands of times each. Comments tend to be enthusiastic, with members writing things like:
"LOVE THIS! Too bad __ won't be big enough to play with lights for this year's X-mas card."
"LOVE this precious little girl and her parents for the idea! Fave baby shot!"
"Christmas baby. Lights om nom nom!"
Some bloggers are even offering tutorials on how to take pictures of your baby wrapped in Christmas lights.
Are the photos cute? Yes. But they are also incredibly dangerous for babies.
One CNN analysis found unsafe levels of lead on the surface of all four brands of Christmas lights they tested. They reported:
"There is no level at which lead exposure is safe," Dr. Trasande said. "Even at one microgram/deciliter -- the lowest level in a person's blood stream that we can detect -- that level has been associated with cognitive impairment in children."
Bloomburg further reported:
Fifty-four percent of holiday lights tested in a U.S. study had more lead than regulators permit in children’s products, with some strands containing more than 30 times those levels.
In tests by HealthyStuff.org, unsafe levels of lead were found in General Electric, Home Depot and Martha Stewart Living labels, among others.
You can view results of Healthy Stuff's tests on dozens of holiday lights here.
California requires warning labels on Christmas lights, designating them products with chemicals that may be carcinogenic and may cause birth defects.
Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Scott Wolfson says, “Holiday lights are not children’s products and CPSC advises parents to not allow children to handle or play with these lights.”
There are so many wonderful ways to photograph your little ones during the holidays. To be safe though, leave the Christmas lights in the background.
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