EL PASO, Texas (Sept. 1, 2026) – Nearly four out of five children's toys purchased in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez region contain at least one toxic element, according to a new study led by researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso. The findings , just published in the journal Environmental Pollution, represent the first binational screening of hazardous metals in toys sold on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Children are not small adults. Their bodies take in heavy metals more readily than ours do," said Jorge Gardea-Torresdey, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UTEP and the study's senior author. "And because their organs and detoxification systems are still developing, the same exposure that an adult might tolerate can cause far greater harm."
Over an 11-month period, the research team acquired 333 toys from popular retail stores, 109 in El Paso and 224 in Ciudad Juárez, in proportion to each city's population of children under 14. Using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), a technique that quickly reveals the elemental makeup of a material's surface, the researchers screened every item for lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, nickel, zinc, titanium and others.
Overall, 78% of the toys contained at least one element of concern, and about one in eight contained three or more at once. Nickel, among the most common causes of allergic reactions, appeared in more than a third of all samples. One item was 100% nickel, and four others contained more than 60% nickel.
Lead was detected in 3% of the toys, mostly in inexpensive jewelry, where some decorative metal components contained as much as 67% lead. Arsenic and cadmium, both classified as human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, turned up in 18 and 15 items, respectively, all of which were purchased in Ciudad Juárez.
In all, 40 samples, or 12% of the total, contained metal concentrations above limits set by U.S. and Mexican toy safety standards. Even after accounting for differences in product type, toys purchased in Ciudad Juárez were roughly three times more likely to exceed those thresholds than toys purchased in El Paso. Children's jewelry, which made up about 41% of the collection, stood out as the highest-risk category.
The authors caution that XRF measures the total amount of metal in a toy, while safety regulations are based on how much metal can migrate out of a product through contact with saliva or sweat. The results should therefore be read as a screening-level indicator of potential risk rather than as confirmed regulatory violations, the team said. Planned follow-up work includes leaching tests that simulate real-world use and expanded sampling in other border communities.
"A bracelet or a pair of earrings can cross an international line in an afternoon. Our results make the case for harmonized safety standards, better labeling and continued monitoring to protect the roughly 565,000 children who call this binational community home," Gardea-Torresdey said.
The project was led by UTEP but was binational by design.
Jesus Antonio Rodríguez-Loya, a doctoral student in UTEP's Environmental Science and Engineering Ph.D. program, conceived the study with Gardea-Torresdey and performed the experiments. UTEP co-authors included Ph.D. students Maricarmen Lerma and Abraham Dagda-Torres. Juan Pedro Flores Margez, Ph.D., a professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, conducted the study's statistical analysis.
"Our faculty and students took a sophisticated analytical technique out of the laboratory and applied it to a question that matters to every parent in the Paso del Norte region, working hand in hand with colleagues in Ciudad Juárez," said Marc Knecht, Ph.D., dean of the UTEP College of Science. "It is rigorous research in direct service of our community."
The research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Dudley family for Gardea-Torresdey's Endowed Professorship and Mexico's Secretaría de Ciencia, Humanidades, Tecnología e Innovación.
About The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at El Paso is America's leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 26,000 students are Hispanic, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. With respect to research, UTEP is in the top 5% of universities in America and offers 170 bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
