More lead in toys

Again if you have young children around - or know of any with Mattel toys in the house - please read and take action if necessary...

If this weren't so serious, the saga of ongoing recalls of products made in China would be a running joke..... Today's recalls are about toys - again...from Mattel - again.....


One recall is due to lead; the other due to small magnets....

The company, in a statement issued from its headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., said it was recalling a total of 436,000 Chinese-made toys, more than half of them marketed in the United States, that had “impermissible levels of lead.” The toys are die-cast vehicles featuring the Sarge character from the movie “Cars.”

Mattel said the hazard in the products, made between May and July, was discovered as part of an investigation of all its toy manufacturing that began in July after it received a tip about lead-based paint. The latest move involves toys from a different Chinese contractor than the one that produced toys recalled earlier this month, it said.

The separate action today involving a design flaw in 18.2 million magnetic toys, about half of them sold in the United States, expanded a recall initiated last year after reports of deaths and injuries to children who ingested magnets that had come loose. Mattel said the recall covered 63 varieties of toys, made since 2002 and sold before January of this year, including 44 Polly Pocket toys, 11 Doggie Day Care toys, 4 Batman toys, a One Piece toy, and two Barbie toys.

Here is a link to the Consumer Product Safety Commission listing all recalls [so far] for this month

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerelaug07.html

Beware- more leaded toys

This in the news today:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mattel Inc.'s Fisher-Price division is recalling almost 1 million toys made in China because their paint may contain too much lead, marking the latest in a string of recalls that have fueled U.S.-China tensions over the safety of Chinese products.

Mattel said the 967,000 plastic toys, which include popular preschool characters like Elmo, Big Bird, and Dora, were made by a contract manufacturer in China using a non-approved paint pigment containing lead, which is in violation of its standards.

Full article HERE

Why are all these dangerous products still coming in? We have had bad pet food, bad people food and bad children's toys. No one seems able to stop them because no one is monitoring our safety! We have few person who do the actual inspections - in fact there are fewer food safety inspectors than back in 2002 and we import more and more stuff - with fewer and fewer inspections!

This from an administration that pretends to be concerned with public safety - when they are in reality more concerned with scare tactics and keeping people afraid.

After all - Fear is good for republicans...

Toss these children's snacks!

If you have any of these Veggie Booty snacks around - throw them out!

Snack implicated in 17-state Salmonella outbreak

Jun 29, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – An epidemiologic investigation of 52 cases of Salmonella infection in 17 states, most of them in children, has prompted a nationwide recall of a snack called Veggie Booty, federal health agencies reported yesterday.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised consumers to throw away any Veggie Booty on hand. The snack is made of puffed rice and corn with a vegetable coating and is sold in flexible plastic foil bags in 4-ounce, 1-ounce, and half-ounce sizes, federal officials said...The FDA listed the states and numbers of cases in the outbreak as follows: California, 7; Colorado, 5; Connecticut, 1; Georgia, 1; Indiana, 1; Massachusetts, 3; Minnesota, 2; New Hampshire, 2; New Jersey, 2; New York, 13; Oregon, 1, Pennsylvania, 3; Tennessee, 1, Texas, 1; Vermont, 3; Washington, 4; and Wisconsin, 2.

Full article HERE