Say you're browsing the toy aisle of your local discounter. You see a Polly Pocket mini doll set car you're interested in buying but see -- of course -- that it was made in China.

Is it toxic? Is it safe to buy?

Now there's a text-messaging system that will tell you instantly whether it's safe to buy.

Momsrising.org, a family advocacy Web site founded in 2006, has developed a text-messaging system that uses a database of toys tested for lead, arsenic and other toxins recently created by the Michigan-based nonprofit Ecology Center.

Here's how it works. If you want to find out about the Polly Pocket, you text healthytoys, the name of the product and then the numbers 41411 (example: healthytoys polly pocket car to 41411) you'll receive a text message back saying: "TOXIN LEVELS DETECTED -- LOW: Polly Pocket Car Cool Friends by Mattel."

The Ecology Center's Web site, www.healthytoys.org, which was created earlier this month, has a list of 1,200 toys that have been tested by the center and other environmental health groups across the country. At the site, parents can search by product name, brand or toy type to learn how the products rate in terms of harmful chemical content.

The testing was conducted with a screening technology -- the X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzer -- which identifies elementary composition on materials on the surface of products.

For each of the toys, the site provides an overall "low," "medium" or "high" rating indicating the levels of detected chemicals of concern.

Jeff Gearhart, campaign director for the Ecology Center, said the center created the database because the federal government was not testing the products. "Too many manufacturers are not self-regulating, so we created the nation's first toy database to help inform and empower consumers," he said in a statement.

Although not all toys on the market have been tested, consumers can nominate other products they want the agency to evaluate.

Healthytoys.org has been so popular that the heavy traffic has slowed navigation through the site at times, but the creators are working on making improvements.