Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Just When We Thought Our Children Were Safe, Mattel Recalls More Toys.


I have always advocated that boys should not play with Barbie Dolls. Now the The Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Mattel, may agree and extend the warning to both boys and girls when it comes to certain toys manufactured in China. Mattel is recalling 844,000 toys that contain excessive levels of lead paint. This is the third such recall of Chinese-manufactured toys by Mattel. Mattel apologized to consumers and said that it is investigating its vendors and testing its toys. 11 additional types of toys had been discovered that needed to be recalled.
675,000 units of various Barbie accessory toys sold between October 2006 through August 2007 were named in Mattel's recall.
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"We've promised consumers that we'd tell them efficiently and openly if we found any additional affected toys, and that is what we are doing today," said Mattel.

Three Fisher-Price brand toys and various Barbie accessory were recalled, with Barbie toys being the majority of the affected toys. (No Barbie dolls were actually recalled.)

Mattel also recalled 8,900 units of Big Big World 6-in-1 Bongo Band toys and 90,000 units of Geo Trax Locomotive Toys, all manufactured in China in 2006 and 2007.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it is a shame that companies don't manufacture their toys home in the U.S. or in the U.K. where workers are treated like people and products are made to be safe.


Peter

Anonymous said...

We need to protect the innocent children.

Anonymous said...

Never been a big fan of Barbie anyway. I grew up with G.I. Joes!

Shell

Anonymous said...

Cute kid! Is he a model?

Toys in U.S. should be assumed to be safe. Because they are made in China, they are not!


Johnna

Anonymous said...

In my day we never worried about a little bit of lead. I think this is all blown out of portion. Remember legal pubs other story where some lady had a pencil in her brain for 30 years...

get real.

Ralph

Anonymous said...

Ralph, I think lead can be harmful to brain development.


Penny

Anonymous said...

u.s. needs better quality control too.

Anonymous said...

Nice looking boy! Toys should be made in the good ole U.S.A. We need to get the unions more active in these foreign countries?

Ms Calabaza said...

Shell,
I too liked GI Joes. Ken just never did it for me . . . and Barbie just didn't look like me.

Anonymous,
I believe there are no unions in these foreign countries; hence, cheap labor . . .

colleency said...

The woman with the pencil in her brain for 30 years would have had more lead exposure from the toys - pencils are made with graphite, not lead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil

Anonymous said...

Colleency, many of the pencils made 40 years ago did contain lead instead of graphite. Therefore the name pencil lead. Even more recently (last 25 years) many foreign countries still used lead in their pencils. Old cogers like me and Ms. C., probably also remember peeling paint off our parents homes and garages. This was lead based paint.

I am not saying lead is good, I am just saying a whole generation was exposed to lead and for the most part we turned out ok. After all, we did not destroy the world during the Cuban Missle Crisis or the Korean conflict.


Ralph

Did You Stop to Think? said...

I think they should start recalling kids...

Anonymous said...

Ian, I think you are right about the recall on kids!


Shell

Anonymous said...

Ms, C, Ken was spineless. He sybolizes the problem with too many men today. G.I. Joe stood for something. Barbie Dolls,they were all show and no go. Now Jane West, there was a real action figure.

Brenda

Anonymous said...

Hope the kid at the top is not recalled. He is a good looking lad...

Legal Pub said...

The child pictured in the story is alive and well. He shows no damage from exposure to lead. He is healthy and active and torments his big sisters on an almost daily basis.

Children are innocent. Consequently, parents must protect them from lead exposure like they would any other toxic substance. Demand that lead based toys be accepted at stores. Help stores pressure manufacturers.

In the end, what consumers do to correct the situation may help make the world safer for the next generation.