claim: Jelly sandals sold by Walmart contain unsafe amounts of lead.
origin: A series of Facebook posts claiming that jelly sandals (or jellies) sold at Walmart stores contain a dangerous amount of lead circulated in June 2017, such as the following post: < BEWARE PARENTS! I took Adelynn to her well checkup the other day and her routine lead screen came back positive. They took a capillary sample from her toe and the first test resulted in a 14.3 and on repeat it was 8.6 (a normal result is less 3.3) of course I was shocked and began racking my brain for what could be the cause. After a google search I saw some people talking about their kids having a positive lead screen from wearing Walmart jellies. Adelynn was wearing these Walmart jellies the day of her screen. I bought a lead test from Lowes and sure enough the jellies tested positive for lead. We had a venous sample drawn to see if she was absorbing it systemically but the results arenâ€™t back yet. UPDATE! The health dept called me today and said that her serum lead levels were thankfully normal! So it was obviously something her skin came into contact with. Am I 100% sure it was these shoesâ€¦noâ€¦but these $5 shoes are not worth the stress. Sadly, Walmart and jellies arenâ€™t the only culprits here and I encourage all parents to just be aware of things they put on their kids that arenâ€™t madeÂ in the US. > Similar claimsÂ were made by other Facebook users. One, for instance, reported that her daughter, who â€œbasically only wearsâ€ Jellies, also demonstrated elevated lead levels: None of theÂ postings holding that Walmartâ€™s jellies contained lead came from or cited an official source, such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Protection Agency, or Walmart, nor did they rely upon confirmed laboratory testing. Rather, one posting was based on a home test kit and the other on speculation. While some social media users asserted that they tested jellies and found that they contained unsafe levels of lead, others performed the same testing and found that the products were apparently safe: Tamara Rubin,Â a lead-poisoning prevention advocate, also tested the jelly shoes and found that they were lead free. It should also be noted that this rumor is based onÂ the testing of individualÂ products, and not all jelly sandals.Â Walmart has not issued a recall on any of their jelly shoe products: < We havenâ€™t come across any recalls for jelly shoes. However, please be assured that whenever recalls are issued, we take immediate steps to comply with them. If you ever have questions about a product, you can visit http://corporate.walmart.com/recallsÂ to check the recent recall list issued by government regulatory agencies responsible for product recalls.Â > On 24 July 2017, Megan Krigg, Walmartâ€™s Senior Director of Corporate Affairs, told us that the jelly shoes in question had undergone additional testing to confirm that these products did not contain unsafe amounts of lead: < Walmart takes product safety seriously. All products in question were tested before being placed on our shelves, and we initiated over 200 additional tests in the past month to further confirm the safety of the shoes. All tests once again have shown these shoes are safe and meet applicable standards. >