Lead in Toys

There are serious levels of lead in some toys. I know that this is old news to most of you, but I am just starting to take the lead threat seriously. I have already taken many of the common precautions: i.e. buying mostly wooden toys from reputable manufacturers, but I never checked to see whether their existing toys were safe or not. Until yesterday, when I was reorganizing the playroom for the girls, and labeling their baskets with pictures so they could find their toys. I googled their little Fisher Price doctor set (a gift from a teacher) so that I could find an image to use on the basket, and I came across a great blog, loveshakbaby.com, with a post about how the very same set that my girls have been playing with for nearly a year has been found to have unsafe levels of lead. Check it out: http://loveshakbaby.com/2007/12/fisher-price-do.html
Now I am going to go through the plastic items they do have and make sure that none of them have been reported as having too much lead, or recalled. Even though my girls are mostly past the everything-in-the-mouth stage, I don’t want them to come in contact with lead, and Lola still likes to put things in her mouth! This subject has been coming up a lot lately. A friend of mine said that her 4-year-old daughter plays with wooden beads at school to make necklaces, and that she likes to put them in her mouth. She was concerned because the beads were made in China. I checked and discovered that Lola’s Haba necklaces and beads are all made in Germany from non-toxic paints.
I am not an alarmist, and I am not saying that just because it was made in China, that this automatically means that it has unsafe lead levels, but it is a concern. It at least warrants a little more digging to see what is safe and what is not. That is why I love to buy toys from companies that I trust, with high quality standards. I do try to buy mostly wood toys, although we do end up with lots of plastic junk, like everyone else. : ( Plastic is unavoidable when it comes to electronic toys, especially. Some of the brands that I know and trust, and which appeal to me aesthetically as well as from a safety perspective, are: Haba, Plan Toys, Melissa & Doug, and Le Toy Van. Have you had any similar scares with toys or other items in your home? Which toy brands do you trust the most?