UPDATED: Fidget Spinners: Are they Safe?

Does it seem like every child (and half of the adults) in America has a fidget spinner? Fidgets are a tool used by educators to help kids who need to wiggle or move in order to keep their body moving so their brains can be open to learning. Now that nearly everyone has one or more of these spinning toys, some schools are starting to ban them as they become a distraction.

But what about safety? Two weeks ago I read a harrowing story on facebook about a kid who got part of the bearing from his fidget spinner stuck on his finger and after hours and hours at the hospital, he had to be put completely under to get it removed (finally!).

Last week I read about a girl who got part of her fidget spinner stuck in her throat.

Now, while all of this is important, Tamara and I care about specifically about lead and other toxins in the materials used to make spinners. Luckily, Tamara was recently able to raise enough money to rent an XRF for a weekend of lead testing and we got together to test some fidget spinners.

You won't believe what we found!

Or maybe you will. After we found lead in the paint of the glass insert of a baby sippy cup, nothing surprises me any more!

Here is the video of Tamara and I testing the spinners:

Before we made the video we actually tested all three of those spinners. The green and purple three-pronged spinners tested negative for lead, cadmium and mercury but the light up fidget spinner tested positive!

Light Up Fidget Spinner Test Results

The BACK tested POSITIVE for lead at 1711 +/-63 PPM and POSITIVE for mercury at 52 +/-20 PPM 

In previous tests not in the video, the side of the spinner tested positive for lead around 166 +/-17 PPM and positive for mercury at 26 +/-11 PPM. The front of the spinner tested positive for lead around 5000 PPM. 

For reference, the Consumer Product Safety Commission limit for lead in items intended for children (kids age 13 and under) is 100 PPM for substrate and 90 PPM for a coating like paint.

This spinner tested between 166 - 5000 PPM lead - that's a whole lot more than it should have!

Is your kid's fidget spinner lead safe?

Unfortunately because most fidget spinners finding their way into kids hands are not name brand spinners but cheap no-name items made in China, it's hard to track who has or doesn't have safe spinners without specifically being able to test your exact spinner.

UPDATE: Even more lead than we thought in the light up fidget spinner.

Since this blog post originally ran, Tamara was able to do more testing on the light up spinner after her son played with it for just a minute before it conveniently broke apart (convenient for us - not so much if you actually wanted to keep the spinner!) - which made all the individual components really easy to test.

Watch her test it here:

Please go here to read all of Tamara's commentary on this but my big takeaways from this video are:

• These spinners are NOT durable - they are likely to break very easily from normal use which makes any of the leaded and mercury containing parts easily accessible to your child.
• There was more than 19,500 PPM lead on the lead solder used on the battery. This heavily leaded component was immediately available to be touched once the spinner broke. This piece is also really small and could be easily swallowed - because it is attached to a semi-exposed battery, this piece could KILL a child if swallowed (read more here about the dangers of children swallowing button batteries)
• Several components of this particular spinner are also high in mercury - containing 1562 PPM mercury - which is a TOXIC amount of mercury. Based on the information I had available, this is likely more mercury than is present in a CFL lightbulb - which the CDC warns is extremely dangerous once dropped due to the level of mercury present.

UPDATE II: Brass Fidget Spinner Test Results Shocking

Since this blog post originally ran on May 28, 2017, Tamara was able to test four additional fidget spinners and an assortment of fidget cubes.

All fidget cubes tested to date have tested non-detect for lead, cadmium or mercury. If you or your child are looking for a fidget toy, so far I think these are the safest from a heavy metals, choking, and getting-things-stuck-on-your-finger perspective.

Three different black three pronged plastic fidget spinners have tested non-detect for lead, cadmium and mercury. These join two other similar fidget spinners which tested lead safe.

What really surprised us, though, was a brass fidget spinner from YoMaxxer: 

The brass fidget spinner tested looks like this one (though the one that tested positive is distributed under the brand name YoMaxxer, it's possible these fidgets are coming from the same factory and are identical). 

Watch Tamara talk about the results of the XRF test on this spinner:

Did you catch that? There is 42,800 (+/-1600) PPM lead and 727 (+/-119) PPM cadmium in that spinner. AND that it was able to test positive with a leadcheck swab means that lead was able to rub off of the spinner - it isn't just trapped inside  - which means as you or your child play with it, that lead can also rub off onto their hands. This spinner is bad news - if you have one, I would get rid of it ASAP.

How to choose a safe spinner

Since we are still in the early stages of testing, I think the safest option is to avoid the spinners altogether if your kids are not yet addicted to them! 

The good news is though, that all fidget cubes tested to date have tested non-detect for lead, cadmium or mercury. If you or your child are looking for a fidget toy, so far I think these are the safest from a heavy metal, chocking and getting-things-stuck-on-your-finger perspective.

If you must have a spinning thing, so far we have had good luck with hard plastic, ceramic bearing three-point fidget spinners like this one testing lead, cadmium and mercury free. I would AVOID, any spinner that is painted or has a metallic finish, is made of brass, or lights up. Of course, I can't promise that yours will be safe but so far we have seen several spinners of this style consistently test lead free. Be sure you talk to your kids about taking it apart, though, so that this doesn't happen to them.

If you want to try making your own, I have a tutorial for making your own DIY fidget spinner with Legos. Check it out here: 

I also like this DIY Lego fidget spinner from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls that would be a great option if your kids are old enough not to swallow Legos or put them in their mouths.

This tutorial from Red Ted Art for making a fidget spinner with coins and cardboard is a good option as well.

Coverage:

THANK YOU to Lacy Cooke for covering this on Inhabitat. Read her story: Researchers Find Dangerous Amounts of Lead in Fidget Spinners

I will keep this post updated as we gather more information and test more spinners. We anticipate being able to do another round of testing June 16-18, 2017. If you want to send us a spinner to test, please visit this page for instructions.

HERE

About the Author:

Carissa Bonham is a lifelong crafter and mom of two creative boys. The owner and lead writer at Creative Green Living, she won the Craftys Award for the "Best Craft Blogger" category in 2016 and the ShiftCon award for "Best DIY Blogger" in 2018.

Her goal is to empower families to make easy projects and healthier choices that are beautiful and delicious! She is also the author of the hardcover cookbook, Beautiful Smoothie Bowls (Skyhorse, 2017) and Proven Techniques for Keeping Healthy Chickens (Skyhorse, 2018). 

Her projects have been featured in magazines like Kids Crafts 1-2-3, Capper's Farmer and Urban Farm Magazine. Follow her on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter or join the Creative Green Living Tribe.

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