lead was the additive of choice to reduce plastics flamability in household items like venitian blinds and other stuff, when it degrades it drops a whitish dust, that is largely lead, also certain plastics react with food and other common things in a home, and react, producing byproducts that are bad for us, and of course, plastic itself is never totaly benign my preference is to have as little of the stuff around as possible, but that is harder and harder to do