Hey, mister, did you know those beads you’re throwin’ might be dangerous?

New findings by Alabama researchers suggest they might. These researchers just published a scientific paper about metals like chromium, copper, arsenic, lead and barium found on Mardi Gras beads.

In high amounts, the researchers said, each of those metals can threaten human health and the environment. And part of the problem is the metals don’t stay on the beads ending up in the ground and water instead.

“This study is the first to show that metals are not only present but actually can be transferred from beads to the environment or to people,” said Dauphin Island Sea Lab Senior Marine Scientist and paper co-author Dr. Ruth H. Carmichael.

Carmichael and her son, co-author Thomas Carmichael, were on the research team. The paper was published in the Gulf and Caribbean Research Journal by the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs .

Thomas is also a student at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science in Mobile.

Carmichael said when her son was in middle school, “He got me interested in it from going to Mardi Gras parades and looking around and seeing all the debris on the ground and on the trees. He started asking questions about it.”

“It did start as a fulfillment of a science project my school required every student to do,” Thomas Carmichael said. But it evolved beyond that in the seventh and eighth grades, Ruth Carmichael said.

How do you study beads? In one experiment, the researchers put beads under a laser’s light to see if metals could be found and counted. More importantly, could they be “mobilized” to come off the beads?

“Just to work with them to measure them under the laser, there were chips of paint and bits of dust coming off,” Carmichael said.

How dangerous are these flying chips? Should small children not put Mardi Gras beads in their mouths? Should people not throw beads at all?

“We’re not trying to rain on anybody’s parade,” Ruth Carmichael said. Afterall, the Carmichaels live in Mobile, the city where Mardi Gras began. Instead, she and Thomas want people to be aware that beads need to be handled properly and not left to deteriorate.

“What comes off the beads seems to have a lot to do with what’s on the beads,” Ruth Carmichael said. “And that seems to have a lot to do with the color of the bead. If you have green beads, you tend to have more chemicals associated to that green color like copper and chromium. Beads like the silver beads had high concentrations of barium.”

The researchers note in the introduction to their paper that concern has grown in recent years about human health impacts of Mardi Gras throws, especially the beaded necklaces. Beads contribute to debris and can help clog storm drains, the research says. It refers to other research showing that in New Orleans alone, 10 days of Mardi Grass created 3.5 million pounds of trash. Of that, 46 tons of beads were removed from storm drains.

The researchers also say the evidence indicates that the “weathering of beads” may be more worrisome than handling. “Beads are commonly dropped on sidewalks, streets, and other impervious surfaces where they may be walked on, runover by vehicle and washed by rain and street cleaners before being swept into drains following parades.”

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend washing your hands after handling Mardi Gras beaded necklaces, not putting them in your mouth and not giving them to unsupervised children.

Another suggestion is supporting re-use programs to limit the new beads added to the environment each year.

The study is called “Braving the Elements: Loss of Metals from Mardi Gras Beads due to Handling and Weathering.” It is in the February edition of the Gulf and Caribbean Research Journal.