Just in time for your holiday shopping, the Ecology Center and Healthy Toys have released their 2nd annual consumer guide to toxic chemicals in toys. That such a guide should even exist is disturbing, but the findings are even more so. After testing over 1,500 popular children's toys, it was determined that fully one-third contained "high" or "medium" levels of 'chemicals of concern', including lead and arsenic.

And if you thought more expensive or American-made toys were safer, that is not necessarily true. The testing revealed no relationship between the presence of toxic chemicals and where a toy was made and how much it cost. The exception to that finding is cheap jewelry, which was found to be five times as likely to contain high levels of lead than the other products tested.

It isn't all bad news, though. Compared to last year's testing, about half as many toys contained high levels of lead this year. And as of February, toys containing certain harmful plasticizers will be banned (although they are still on the shelves today).

If you are worried about the toys you are purchasing for your loved ones this season, visit the Healthy Toys Website. They have compiled a searchable database with detailed findings of their testing.