BANGOR – Concerned over recent recalls of toys that contain high levels of lead, parents and other holiday shoppers have a new resource to help them select safe gifts for the young children on their lists. The new Web site www.healthytoys.org was introduced Wednesday at press conferences in Bangor and Portland, hosted by the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine.

The Web site was developed by the Michigan-based nonprofit Ecology Center and the Washington Toxics Coalition with regional partners in eight states.

The Toy Industry Association, a trade group, on Wednesday called the information on the site “misleading” and cited the industry’s “strict adherence to U.S. safety industry standards.”

“We have a right to know what toxic chemicals are in products that may threaten the health of our children,” said Mike Belliveau, executive director of the Maine Environmental Health Strategy Center, speaking at the Children’s Discovery Museum in Bangor. Belliveau called it “shocking” that everyday products contain dangerous levels of potentially harmful substances and said the federal government has been “asleep at the wheel” when it comes to protecting consumers.

“This is just the toxic tip of the iceberg,” Belliveau said, noting that the number of products tested is only a small fraction of the toys and other items produced and marketed for children.

The new Web site reports chemical testing results on more than 1,200 popular toys and other children’s products, disclosing the levels of lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and other potentially harmful substances they contain. From a purple-and-blue Hannah Montana “Girls Rock” backpack, with high levels of lead and arsenic, to the bright plastic doughnuts of the Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack, which is included in the “best toys” section, the site provides critical information about the products children want most. Jewelry, building blocks, bibs, backpacks, stuffed animals, toy cars, dolls, action figures and crib mobiles are among the products tested and identified by name.

Examiners used a variety of methods to test for the substances, including an “X-ray fluorescence device” to detect elements such as lead, cadmium, chlorine, arsenic, mercury, tin and antimony. The technology is similar to that used in measuring lead paint contamination in homes, Belliveau said.

Of the items tested, 35 percent contained lead, known to cause harmful neurological changes in infants and young children. Forty-seven percent were made from PVC plastic, which in the United States is likely to contain hormone-disrupting compounds known as phthalates, although the testing process did not specifically include the detection of phthalates, which are added to plastics to make them soft and flexible. Three percent contained the known carcinogen and heavy metal toxin cadmium.

Bangor physician Peter Millard, a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, also spoke at the press conference. He said the European Union has banned the addition of phthalates in PVC plastic toys because of concerns over their impact on children’s hormones, but the U.S. has not.

“China makes phthalate-free toys for the EU,” he said, but the majority of PVC toys in the U.S. contain the softening compounds, as do many common household products.

“It’s what gives new cars that new car smell,” he added.

On the good news side, 28 percent of the products tested did not contain any lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury or PVC, including many items made in China.

The toy industry has adopted voluntary standards for the amount of toxic substances their products may contain, Belliveau said, but they are only guidelines and unenforceable at the manufacturing level. Recent high-profile recalls of toys made in China because of unacceptably high levels of lead were the result of random testing by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, Belliveau said, but the agency has little authority and virtually no funding to conduct meaningful product testing.

He called on consumers to demand more aggressive state and federal oversight of manufacturers of toys and other products.

Asked to comment on the new Web site, the Toy Industry Association indicated that while some children’s products may contain small amounts of hazardous substances, those substances typically don’t pose a threat to consumers.

“The Toy Industry Association views the report … as misleading consumers about potential health hazards. The presence of inaccessible substances in trace amounts does not mean they are harmful,” the organization said in its e-mailed statement. The association said it “values the public trust in toy safety” and invited consumers to visit its own Web site, www.toyinfo.org.