LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Friday, seventh-graders from Sierra Middle School were trying to find products in their classroom that contain lead. The project was spearheaded by the New Mexico Department of Health and is an opportunity for the students to get a hands-on learning experience.

“We're not just reading from the textbook,” said Saleem Iqbal. But, it was also a real eye-opener for the students.

“It was a lot of fun, but it was also very surprising and kind of scary,” said Allana Borgersen.

Scary because they found lead in one of their favorite things.

“Like candy,” said Iqbal.

“Candy wrappers especially from Mexico,” said Borgersen. And it turns out finding lead in Mexican candies, or wrappers, is nothing new.

“There have been several projects done on lead especially in the border region because of the Mexican candy,” said Annabelle Fierro who is a New Mexico State University community health student.

While reports have shown Mexican candy manufacturers have made an attempt to clean up their act, lead is still showing up. So KFOX ran its own test Friday on a wide variety popular Mexican candies. While many of them started out negative, there was one particular type of candy that was testing positive. It was one in which a watermelon-flavored lollipop is dipped into chili powder. The discovery wasn’t really a surprise since the Department of Health said most the time when Mexican candies do turn up positive for lead, it’s because they contain chili that wasn’t processed properly at one point.

“I think it's important to shed light on many items that most people wouldn't think of that contain lead are a source of chronic lead exposure in our county,” said Fierro.