Glassware decorated with a Ronald McDonald character is tested for cadmium, lead and other toxic elements in Los Angeles. Glassware made for children exceed federal limits for lead, according to tests commissioned by The Associated Press.

LOS ANGELES — Drinking glasses depicting comic book and movie characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman and the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz” exceed federal limits for lead in children’s products by up to 1,000 times, according to laboratory testing commissioned by The Associated Press.

The decorative enamel on the superhero and Oz sets — made in China and purchased at a Warner Bros. Studios store in Burbank — contained between 16 percent and 30.2 percent lead. The federal limit on children’s products is 0.03 percent.

The same glasses also contained relatively high levels of the even-more-dangerous cadmium, though there are no federal limits on that toxic metal in design surfaces.

Federal regulators have worried that toxic metals rubbing onto children’s hands can get into their mouths. Among the brands on those glasses: Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Burger King and McDonald’s.

Coca-Cola, which had been given AP’s test results last week, announced Sunday it was voluntarily recalling 88,000 glasses over concerns regarding the red glass in a four-glass set.

The AP testing was part of the news organization’s ongoing investigation into dangerous metals in children’s products and was conducted in response to a recall by McDonald’s of 12 million glasses this summer because cadmium escaped from designs depicting “Shrek” characters.

The New Jersey manufacturer of those glasses said in June that the products were made according to standard industry practices, which includes the routine use of cadmium to create red and similar colors. That same company, French-owned Arc International, made the glasses that Coca-Cola said it was pulling.

To assess potential problems with glass collectibles beyond the “Shrek” set, AP bought and analyzed new glasses off the shelf, and old ones from online auctions, thrift shops and a flea market. The buys were random.

The fact it was so easy to find glasses that appeal to children and appear to violate the federal lead law suggests contamination in glassware is wider than one McDonald’s promotion.

Federal regulators will decide whether the superhero and Oz glasses are “children’s products” and thus subject to strict lead limits.