Chinese toy recalls - does anybody care ?

U.S. safety officials have voluntarily recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots toys contaminated with a powerful "date rape" drug that has caused some children to vomit and lose consciousness upon ingesting the contents, according to this report by CNN.

The current recall of toys announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is the latest of many recalls of toys made in China, including by leading brands Mattel Inc. and RC2 Corp. In most of these cases the toys had lead in their paint that was far beyond permissible levels.

As holiday buying gets closer, it will appear that more toys made in China will get into markets around the world. However both big brand toy makers and local Chinese makers seem to be taking the consumer for granted.

The callous pattern is that CPSC issues a recall advisory, and it is back to business-as-usual it seems for the companies that sold the toys. The toy makers are playing with children's lives, and what is required from them is not recalls and refunds, but proactive action that does not expose children to these toxic toys.

The Aqua Dots toys toy contains a chemical that, once metabolized, converts into the toxic "date rape" drug GHB (gamma-hydroxy butyrate), accroding to CSPC."Children who swallow the beads can become comatose, develop respiratory depression or have seizures," a CPSC statement warned.

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of toys these days that aren't made in China. The rush to China by multinational toy makers and the emergence of Chinese toy makers have almost wiped out most toy makers outside China. Most of them remain as boutique toy makers, selling expensive toys. Handing over the market to China has meant that we now have fewer sources of safe toys.

There is case for banning toys made in China until the country's manufacturers recognize their responsibilities. There is also a case for boycotting some of the big brands until they can show us that they are proactively preventing harmful toys. We have to cease being supine consumers and assert our rights both as consumers and citizens.

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RC2 Corp. recalls toys again, patience runs thin

RC2 Corp., the vendors of Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys, has recalled another 200,000 of these toys, as the surface paints on the toys can contain excessive levels of lead, violating the federal lead paint standard, according to a statement from The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

This recall by RC2 Corp., of Oak Brook, Illinois comes three months after the company recalled 1.5 million toys in the Thomas & Friends series, after finding lead paint on the surface of the products, CPSC said in July.

In both cases the toys, said to have high lead content in their paint, were made in China, adding to concerns about the safety of toys and other products made in China, including those made in China for big US brands.

Mattel Inc., another toy maker surprisingly apologized last week for damaging China's reputation by its recall of toys made in China. 2.2 million toys were recalled over impermissible levels of lead, according to a statement issued by Mattel, though it said that its lead-related recalls were overly inclusive, including toys that may not have had lead in paint in excess of US standards.

Another 17.4 million toys from Mattel were also recalled because of loose magnets, but Mattel put it down to a flaw in its design.

This “mea culpa” by Mattel, exonerating the Chinese, seems surprising, even as companies like RC2 Corp. are still reporting high lead in the paint for their toys.

The fact remains that blue-chip American companies have been shipping products that have been hazardous for the kids who played with them. The toys covered under RC2’s recall of September 26, 2007 include stuff that was sold through toy stores and various retailers nationwide from March 2003 through September 2007 ! That means toys with lead paint were still shipped up to September 2007, even though the company found and recalled other toys with lead as way back as in June, 2007. Wasn’t RC2 supposed to check for lead the whole lot of toys it had on retail shelves ?

A recall does not absolve the companies of responsibility. They have to make sure that these incidents don’t happen again. If there is a problem with the Chinese supplier, please sort it out. If there are problems with your designs, sort that out too, and make sure your designs are foolproof.

Recalls don’t make you good corporate citizens. Prevention does, and in this regard companies were caught napping. Consumer patience may be running out.

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Mattel apologizes for defaming the Chinese !

Mattel toy recall: a case for banning imports of Chinese toys ?

Once upon a time, not so long ago, toys for kids were handcrafted, and made of wood. The seven dwarfs, the fairies, elves, and other denizens of a child’s universe, were just what one would expect them to look - small and cute, with an eye to detail, and lots of realism.

Enter Fisher-Price, Mattel, and other toy companies, and they began producing in plastic, and to cut costs and appeal to mass markets, they did the inevitable – move production to Asia, mainly China.

As a result quality dropped, not only because of the Chinese, but because of the cost cutting, I guess. The Barbie dolls, owned by my daughter, broke in weeks, and soon she found greater interest in cuddly rag dolls and stuffed toys, rather than in big-breasted Barbie dolls.

The toy companies that handcrafted their toys with high quality materials were however priced out of the market. Some of them thrived in niches, designing products for the super-rich.

In the meantime, the Chinese got into their own toy design and manufacture of toys, and flooded markets around the world with low-cost, easily broken toys of questionable aesthetics. Their prices were right though, and as a result by some estimates 80 percent of toys imported to the US are from China. It is likely to be far higher in developing economies like India.

Mattel is likely to in time get its quality checks back in place, and put the embarrassment of the repeated recalls of its products, behind it. Let me point out here that bad products and recalls not only hurt company bottom lines, but a lot of kids who have already handled these unsafe gizmos.

What is worse is that the vast majority of Chinese toys entering our markets do not however go through any internationally approved quality standards. They come from companies that are hardly known outside China.

Has anyone studied those toys extensively for lead in the paint, and other threats to children ? Is there a case for governments around the world to ban these toys before they hurt kids ? Does it make sense, at this point to protect domestic industries in various countries that have been so far producing wholesome toys, but could go extinct because of competition from China ? This is not protectionism. This is for our children.

Back to the new Mattel and Fisher-Price recall this week. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced this week that:

1)Mattel Recalls Various Barbie Accessory Toys Due to Violation of Lead
Paint Standard
2)Fisher-Price Recalls Geo Trax Locomotive Toys Due To Violation of
Lead Paint Standard
3)Fisher-Price Recalls Bongo Band Toys Due to Violation of Lead Paint
Standard

The recall involves various Barbie accessory toys that were manufactured between September 30, 2006 and August 20, 2007. The model names, product numbers and affected date code numbers are listed in a chart on CPSC's web site.

The recall by Fisher-Price involves the Geo Trax Freightway Transport and Geo Trax Special Track Pack locomotive toys. These toys are red with yellow paint on the ladder and horn details, CPSC said in a release. The recalled models were manufactured between July 31, 2006 and August 20, 2007 and have a date code between 212-6CK through 325-6CK or 001-7CK through 232-7CK marked on the bottom of the product. The packaging on the Freightway Transport model is marked H5705 and the packaging on the Special Track Pack model is marked K3013, CPSC said.