It's something new for the American consumer to worry about this holiday season, as if they didn't have enough already: buying safe, toxin-free toys.

After a tumultuous year of public outcries denouncing China’s failure to regulate harmful chemicals in toys, many consumers are keeping a wary eye out when they shop for children. To aid them in their search for safe toys, they have the option of perusing the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Ecology Center's 2008 inspection study of more than 1,500 toys.

The Ecology Center's report, which is available at www.healthtoys.org, provides a list of chemicals commonly found in plastic and other materials. Lead, cadmium, arsenic, and bromine crop up frequently. So do plastics full of chemicals that are less than safe because kids can be tough on toys, degrading them so that the toxins are available to be ingested.

The Ecology Center tested toys for toxins and ranked the results by safest toy. Toys are ranked as containing low, medium or high levels of chemicals. The results of each toxin test were then averaged to create a single product rating.

The organization also coordinated with manufacturers who are increasingly faced with consumer demands for safer, toxin-free toys. "With consumers paying more attention, toy manufacturers are being forced to respond," said Jeff Gearhart of the Ecology Center.

The organization's web site also provides a handy search feature where consumers can do safety checks on the season's must-have toys. In a search for Dora the Explorer toys, MatterNetwork found more than 15 related items, none of which were toxin-free. Another popular item, the Nintendo Wii, ranked less than safe, but that is to be expected since it is packed with computer components that contain all sorts of chemicals like bromine and chlorine.

In an ideal world, toys would come from natural, chemical-free products. This isn't an ideal world, though, and in the meantime the Ecology Center's resource can provide valuable  guidance to worried shoppers.