Here is the latest news release from the American Association for Justice. Parents, please read before buying toys for your little children.
USA Today (12/3, Szabo) reports, “Consumer advocates agree that parents have good reason to be careful” about the toys they buy for their children. “New lead standards…won’t take effect until Feb. 10,” and Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky “warns that stores may mark down toys with high lead levels to sell them before the deadline.” She is “also concerned that the government won’t enforce a ban on hormone-like chemicals called phthalates,” as “a staff attorney at the Consumer Product Safety Commission has said stores may continue selling toys with phthalates indefinitely, as long as the products were made before Feb. 10.”
The Minneapolis Star Tribune (12/3, Meersman) reports that the Michigan-based Ecology Center’s new report on toys found that “nearly one-third of the popular toys tested contain medium to high levels of lead, cadmium, mercury or other potentially dangerous chemicals.” The Detroit News (12/3, Chambers) reports that of those toys tested, “62 percent or 954 toys contained low levels of chemicals of concern while 21 percent or 324 toys contained no chemicals of concern at all.”
Recalls on rise. MarketWatch (12/3, Andrejczak) reports that the Consumers Union said “the US Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled more products in fiscal 2008, the bulk of which were made in China,” marking a 19% rise to 563. Furthermore, “two-thirds of the 43 million products recalled were children’s toys, nursery items, and clothing.”
