Fisher Price Lead Disaster, Toys Recalled
We all know the dangers of lead poisoning by now. Tommy and his infamous RC2 gang taught us that just a few weeks ago.
Too bad Mattel didn’t learn from this.
Fisher Price is officially scheduled to announce today, August 2, 2007 that it will recall over 1 million of its toys, more than 83 types of its Sesame Street line and Dora and Diego Characters due to excessive levels of lead. The official press release states, “Surface paints on the toys could contain excessive levels of lead. Lead is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse health effects.”
To solve this problem with Fisher Price: Consumers should immediately take the recalled toys away from children and contact Fisher-Price. Consumers will need to return the product and will receive a voucher for a replacement toy of the consumer’s choice (up to the value of the returned product).
Customer Contact: For additional information visit the firm’s Web site at www.service.mattel.com or contact Fisher-Price at (800) 916-4498.
List of products recalled (since May 1, 2007)
This, fortunately, is the first major recall issue involving lead paint for Fisher Price. However, it again involves China as the contributing force.
“Anytime a company brings a banned hazardous product into the U.S. marketplace, especially one intended for children, it is unacceptable,” said Nancy Nord, acting chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. “Ensuring that Chinese-made toys are safe for U.S. consumers is one of my highest priorities and is the subject of vital talks currently in place between CPSC and the Chinese government.”
If anyone got around to reading my post over at The Chicago Mom’s Blog I wrote mainly about how Barack Obama is lobbying for legislation that bans children’s products containing lead. Currently, products are allowed to have .06 percent lead content.
Obama was head of the Lead Free Toys Act in 2005 that specified any product containing lead in excess of 600 parts per million would be banned. The new Act will ban any product aimed at children younger than six that contains more than trace amounts of lead.
Wonder how that will be enforced with imports?
Related posts:
Yank the Tank, Thomas the Toxic Train Recall
Does Your Child Have Lead Poisoning from Thomas the Train?
Recall the Train, Thomas is Toxic
Thomas the Train Recall, is Obama the Cure?
Word Press, Technorati, Obama, Thomas the Train, Fisher Price, Lead, Dora, Elmo, China, Mattel, Recall, Toys, China, Tags
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Thank you for posting this . . . I was talking to my husband last night about feeling like we really can’t buy toys from China. He told me that another family had tried to avoid buying anything from China, including food products, and it seemed even more daunting than gluten free, casein free, egg free, soy free.
I was so excited about these Diego toys as we purchased a couple for Thane and he was using them for creative play, not just lining this up. I know it was my own issue with retail therapy, but I was so excited I bought all these different things with all the different animals.
He almost never mouths toys, but last week he was dipping Baby Jaguar in lemonade and sucking the lemonade off. Bleh!
August 5th, 2007 at 7:32 am
[...] facing issues of lead levels in toys? Now I am seeing this problem that Fisher Price is having toys recall due to excessive levels of lead. I mean, those toys do cost a lot, can’t they just use [...]
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:25 am
I hate to inform you all that we are finding toys manufactured from Los Angeles to Canada to Mexico and China all coming up with excessive amounts of Lead. Not just in toys and jewelry but in classrooms where are children spend hours on end. Last week, our company, Inspect-A-Toy, Inc. in California discovered dozens of preschool chairs to have high amounts of harmful Lead. If you have any questions, feel free to find us online. Also, the majority of the toys we are catching with high amounts of Lead have not been recalled yet. We’re working on it though.