Are you concerned with the recent toy recalls?
By magnet
@magnet (2087)
United States
August 14, 2007 9:31pm CST
I am very concerned. Tomorrow I am going to sort through my children's toy boxes. I have to get rid of my son's Thomas the Trains.I thought that Fisher Price and Mattel toys are safe. I am thinking about not buying toys from China because I keep hearing on the news about recalls.You can read the news article here:
http://www.myfoxwghp.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=009760C8629664B9DDD09D902BAE816A?contentId=4061111&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1
Mattel Recalls Nearly 9 Million Chinese-Made Toys
Toys Contain Loose Magnets, Lead Paint
Last Edited: Tuesday, 14 Aug 2007, 9:40 PM EDT
Created: Tuesday, 14 Aug 2007, 10:29 AM EDT
A boy looks around a toy store Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007, in Manila, Philippines. Toys made by Mattel based on popular characters like Barney, Dora and Diego have been recalled in some Asian and European countries after the toymaker warned of lead in the paint. China has temporarily banned two toy makers whose products were subject to massive recalls in the United States from exporting their goods and urged them to overhaul their business practices, the government said Thursday Aug 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Pat Roque, FILE) SideBar
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By NATASHA METZLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- Toy-making giant Mattel Inc. issued recalls Tuesday for about 9 million Chinese-made toys that contain magnets children can swallow or which could have lead paint.
The recall includes 7.3 million play sets, including Polly Pocket dolls and Batman action figures, and 253,000 die cast cars that contain lead paint.
Nancy A. Nord, acting Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman, told a news conference no injuries had been reported with any of the products involved in the new recall.
"The scope of these recalls is intentionally large to prevent any injuries from occurring," she told the news conference.
At least one U.S. child has died and 19 others have needed surgery since 2003 after swallowing magnets used in toys, the government said. Several injuries had been reported in an earlier Polly Pocket recall last November.
Mattel, in a full-page ad Tuesday in some U.S. newspapers, said the company was "one of the most trusted names with parents" and was "working extremely hard to address your concerns and continue creating safe, entertaining toys for you and your children."
Tuesday's recall was the latest blow to the toy industry, which has had a string of recalled products from China. With about 80 percent of toys sold worldwide made in China, toy sellers are worried shoppers will shy away from their products.
It was also the second recall involving lead paint for Mattel in two weeks. Earlier this month, consumers were warned about 1.5 million Chinese-made toys that contain lead paint.
"There is no excuse for lead to be found in toys entering this country," Nord said. "It's totally unacceptable and it needs to stop."
Toys recalled Tuesday include 253,000 "Sarge" cars from the movie "Cars," because the surface paint could contain lead levels in excess of federal standard. The 2 1/2-inch, 1-inch high car looks like a military jeep.
Lead is toxic if ingested by young children, and under current regulations, children's products found to have more than .06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.
Also recalled Tuesday were 345,000 Batman and "One Piece" action figures, 683,000 Barbie and Tanner play sets and 1 million Doggie Day Care play sets.
In the newspaper ads, presented as a letter to "fellow parents" from Mattel chief executive Bob Eckert, the company said "nothing is more important than the safety of our children."
"We have already taken steps to further ensure the safety of our toys," Eckert said.
Nord said the company has stopped selling the recalled products, instructed retailers to pull them from the shelves and made a production change. Mattel is also offering replacement products.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which negotiated details of Mattel's recalls, reported that in the previous recall of Polly Pockets play sets in Nov. 11, three children had been injured by swallowing more than one magnet. All three suffered intestinal perforations that required surgery.
When more than one magnet is swallowed, they can attach to each other and cause intestinal perforation, infection or blockage, which can be fatal.
In March 2006, another toy company, Mega Brands Inc., recalled 3.8 million Magnetix magnetic building sets after one child died and four others were seriously injured after swallowing tiny magnets in them.
Two weeks ago, Mattel's Fisher-Price division announced the worldwide recall of 1.5 million Chinese-made preschool toys featuring characters such as Dora the Explorer, Big Bird and Elmo. About 967,000 of those toys were sold in the United States between May and August.
Mattel discovered the latest problem while they were investigating the earlier recall, Nord said.
Mattel officials maintained that a European retailer discovered the lead in some of the lead-covered Fisher-Price products in early July. On July 6, the company halted operations at the factory in China that produced the toys and launched an investigation.
Days after the Fisher-Price recall, Chinese officials temporarily banned the toys' manufacturer, Lee Der Industrial Co., from exporting products. A Lee Der co-owner, Cheung Shu-hung, committed suicide at a warehouse over the weekend, apparently by hanging himself, a state-run newspaper reported Monday.
Lee Der was under pressure in the global controversy over the safety of Chinese-made products, and it is common for disgraced officials to commit suicide in China.
After Mattel announced the recall of its Fisher-Price toys, it launched a full-scale investigation into all of its factories in China.
Before this month, Fisher-Price and parent company Mattel had never recalled toys because of lead paint.
Consumers should call Mattel at 888-597-6597 for information about the recalled toys with magnets, or 800-916-4997 for information about the recalled cars.
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Mattel: http://service.mattel.com/us/recall.asp
Consumer Product Safety Commission: http://www.cpsc.gov/
3 people like this
5 responses
@crochetmehappy (143)
• United States
18 Aug 07
We are very concerned about all of the recalls. We lucked out and didn't have any of the products that were recalled but I had a knot in my stomach when I heard about Thomas the tank engine. We have a ton of those in the house. We're doing a homemade Christmas this year. We really don't want to give money to companies that don't care about our children's safety. If they did they would have stricter guidelines and actually stick to them. Sorry I got on the soapbox. What really makes me wonder is how many parents haven't even heard of the recalls and their children are still playing with these toys.
@magnet (2087)
• United States
18 Aug 07
We have a huge collection of Thomas the train toys also. I have several that I need to return to the company. It makes me wonder if the others that are not on the list are safe. He has been playing with those trains every since he was a baby and I thought that it was safe. I think that this year at Christmas we are going to buy mostly books.
2 people like this
@crochetmehappy (143)
• United States
18 Aug 07
I'm worried that some of the other trains we have are not safe also. We're going to try to make Christmas be the whole month of December kind of thing and go to a lot of the events that they have around here. They do tree lightings and horse drawn carriage rides and some other stuff. The kids love to make cookies so I'm thinking about doing 12 days of cookies (we'll have to give a lot of those away but it will be fun making them). We're going to start making a big dinner on Christmas day. We usually don't do much for dinner that day and hopefully that will take away the pressure of a ton of presents. I'm going to make presents for them and then we'll get them some stuff that they need like clothes or books. In a way I guess it will be good to get them off of the gimmie this and gimmie that thing they've gotten into lately.
I'm sorry to hear that you have a lot of recalled items. I'm hoping that they won't have to recall anymore.
1 person likes this
@alexsis (2149)
• United States
19 Aug 07
Yes, I'm really concerned about all of the recent toy recalls. I also thought that Mattel and Fisher Price toys were safe, well I thought wrong. My daughter has a couple of toys made by Fisher Price but none of them was on the list. But I will stop buying toys that are made in China, especially from Fisher Price or Mattel.
1 person likes this
@Lydia1901 (16351)
• United States
6 Nov 07
Yeah, it is very concerning about those toys. I think it isn't a good idea to release these toys if they aren't save for children to play with at all. I think it is so silly to release them to the public and then recall them. That is just not right in my opinion.
@carlaabt (3504)
• United States
17 Aug 07
I am constantly checking lists for recalled toys. I don't want my son to have toys that can hurt him! That toy recall with the lead paint really scared me. My son had several of the toys that were listed, but luckily, his were all older than the ones they were recalling. Most of them were toys that he got for Christmas, or for his birthday (February 1st).
I just hope that they get everything fixed so that they don't continue to put those unsafe toys on the market.
1 person likes this
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
17 Aug 07
I can't believe how many that are out there. When we went to Toys R Us yesterday i looked on their noticeboards and they had more than a dozed recall notices on there. It was a little worrying seeing all of those toys there being recalled!






