Finding daily activities for three young children can be difficult, especially during the summer. For Elizabeth Polley, Camarillo’s Jolly Jumps Party Place was the solution.
At least once a week, Sean, 6, Sophia, 3, and Seleste, 17 months, spent part of their summer running from a massive vinyl castle to another colorful inflated structure where they could jump and slide to their hearts’ content.
“It keeps them busy, out of the house, and it’s good exercise,” said Polley of Camarillo.
Some state officials and environmental health advocates, however, say the colorful bounce houses may be doing more harm than good.
State Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a lawsuit Aug. 11 against nine companies that manufacture, distribute or sell bounce houses, alleging they contain unsafe amounts of lead.
Testing done by the Center for Environmental Health on various bounce houses revealed some parts had high lead levels. The federal limit on lead in children’s products is 90 parts per million for painted surfaces and 300 ppm for other parts. Some of the bounce houses tested showed levels from 5,000 to 29,000 ppm.
The nine companies are Bay Area Jump, Cutting Edge Creations, Funtastic Factory (also known as einflatables.com), Magic Jump, Leisure Activities Co., Thrillworks, The Inflatable Store, Jump for Fun Inc. and Jump for Fun National Inc.
Under Proposition 65, passed by state voters in 1986, businesses must notify the public about significant amounts of chemicals in products they purchase or use.
According to the lawsuit, lead was found in polyvinyl chloride fabric and other materials in the bounce houses. The suit alleges the defendants failed to warn children, workers and the general public about the lead, which at high levels can cause irreversible brain damage in children.
“Our goal is to remove the lead from the products and make the products completely safe for use by children,” Deputy Attorney General Jamie Jefferson said. “We noticed general colors, including reds, oranges and purples, seem to have more lead. Part of any future settlement would entail making sure that products already in the marketplace would be disposed of or replaced, because it is a public health issue.”
Some of the companies named in the suit have questioned the testing’s accuracy, saying a bounce house’s life span is generally only two to four years and those that showed high levels of lead were mostly no longer in use.
The bounce houses tested ranged from 1 to 6 years old, Jefferson said.
Don Arndorfer owns Jolly Jumps Inc., which operates Jolly Jumps Party Place in Camarillo. He said he immediately called manufacturers of the vinyl materials in his bounce houses to make sure they were safe, and that none were made by the companies named in the lawsuit.
Arndorfer said he gets annual reports from the manufacturers. An independent lab tested the vinyl, which had only 2.5 ppm of lead, he said.
“I replace my units every two to three years because I do like to keep better-looking equipment,” Arndorfer said. “I feel 100 percent that we have no problems here, but we also take other safety measures.”
Arndorfer said children should always wash their hands after playing in bounce houses or use hand sanitizer before handling food. At Jolly Jumps, no food is allowed in the playrooms, and staff members make sure children sanitize their hands before leaving the playroom, Arndorfer said.
Although she is still comfortable with her kids using the bounce houses, Polley said, “I’m glad someone is looking into it. You assume everything is up to code and sometimes you just don’t know. Hopefully this will force these companies to be in compliance.”
While concerned about lead, Camarillo resident Stacey Foster said it’s all about common sense.
“You can’t walk around with a lead-testing kit and sometimes you can’t avoid it,” Foster said. “As parents, it should be something we need to be concerned about, but your kids should always know to wash their hands.”
New Products 
Discount Inflatables
Inflatable Games