Chinese toy makers' quality scandals of last summer created a perfect opportunity for U.S.-made toys to reclaim market share. Toy companies that still have production in the U.S. quickly jumped on the bandwagon, pitching their "made-in-USA" label and associated quality assurance.

But unfortunately, the "made-in-USA" label may not be a guarantee for safety, according to Michigan-based Ecology Center, which published a report on its Web site HealthyToys.org.

The nonprofit organization and its partners examined more than 1,500 popular toys, purchased from retail stores in Michigan, with portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers that identify the elemental composition of materials on or near the surface of products.

The good news is that 62 percent (954) of the products tested contain low levels of chemicals of concern, and 21 percent (324) of all products contain no chemicals of concern.

The bad news is that U.S-made toys are not immune to health hazard. Among the 17 U.S-made toys in the sample, six had detectable levels of lead -- that's 35 percent. Two items had levels above 600 parts-per-million (ppm) -- the federal recall standard used for lead paint. A Halloween Pumpkin Pin even had 190,943 ppm of lead, one of the highest in the entire study.

Ecology Center said 21 percent of toys from China and 16 percent of those from all other countries had detectable levels of lead in 2008.

Although the Toy Industry Association has called the HealthyToys.org report "misleading at the least," it doesn't seem like anyone can argue about the hard facts.

That's a real shame, because the disappointing news is not only alarming parents at the toy store but also tainting the made-in-USA label. Consumers may dampen their passion for supporting domestically made products, and that's not what this country needs right now.