Toy Recalls: Deja Vu All Over Again
Mattel has announced its third recall in just over one month – affecting 800,000 toys, including Barbie Accessories. See the full list of affected toys here.
Last month, Mattel announced a recall of over 9 million toys, including Barbie dolls (gasp! not Barbie!) and Polly Pocket play sets, among others. See the full list of affected toys here.
Some of the toys have lead paint in higher-than-"permissible" levels (does anyone other than me and iVillage member marcellazr wonder why ANY lead paint is permissible on a kid's toy?), and some have dangerous magnets and small parts that can dislodge and become a choking hazard.
This announcement comes on the heels of some seriously scary news in toyland, including:
- Mattel's recall of 1.5 million toys due to hazardous levels of lead paint (see the full list of those toys here)
- The suicide of a Chinese executive implicated in the first lead paint recall
- The recall of millions of pieces of toy jewelry, also found to contain high levels of lead
...And one iVillager reported some eyebrow-raising behavior on the part of her local toy store around the time of the first Mattel recall announcement.
All this bad news has prompted a lot of conversation, ranting, and even soul-searching on the boards. Some blame lax government control and overseas production outsourcing for the current crop of dangers, with iVillage member ddnlj asking, "Is it still even worth manufacturing overseas?" and member rachel_not_ruthie questioning whether this kind of scare should change our buying behaviors.
Many iVillage moms are feeling a little bit freaked out, like nrmh112575: "I'm ready to order some home lead test kits for all my mattel toys now...do you know how many Dora things my dd has, and has had in her mouth????"
There's also a healthy amount of plain old irritation, especially as people try to make their way through the lengthy (and paperwork-intensive) refund process, like tabitha515:
"WTF I am so sick and tired of this! They will replace the item however you have to mail it in. Who has time for that? I sure don't. This is getting on my last nerve!"
But as mimomtobe pointed out in response to the Mattel toy recall earlier this month (a recall several orders of magnitude smaller than the current one, even), recalls seem to be the high cost of affordable toys: "I guess to be able to afford anything, we get to check for recalls all the time. Bummer."
Of course, there's a lot you can do to help protect your kids -- check out these toy safety basics, know what kinds of toys to look out for at the store, and find out how to act if your child accidentally ingests something harmful. Today's Janice Lieberman also offers up a toy safety checklist.
Have the recent recalls affected you? And whether they've affected you or not, how do you think we as consumers should respond? What are you doing differently, if anything? Let's hear it...
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Toy Recalls: Deja Vu All Over Again.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://beehive.ivillage.com/system/mt-tb.cgi/978
I checked our toys and found some!!!!
When is America going to wake up and stop importing from China? We figured Fisher-Price would be safer than some of the smaller brands and now we're not sure who to trust. I hope this shakes up the industry.
Why are they referring to Mattel as one of the largest toy manufacturers when clearly they aren't manufacturing but rather IMPORTING things from China and distributing them?
I'm wondering how much longer Americans will be subjecting their children to toxic lead. Has it occurred to anyone that our children are the future of America. And if we continue to allow them to be poisoned with lead tainted toys what the long term effects will be? Lead poisoning can cause learning deficiencies in our children. And the teens today are doing work in high school that was college level maybe thirty or forty years ago. If we provide a wall for our future our future ends. I believe that there has been no MISTAKE with lead but rather a time delayed TROJAN HORSE for America. And I just heard that there is a recall on toothpaste that many American hotels distribute to thier guests. MISTAKE OR PLAN? It's time for a change. We, as Americans should send a message LOUD and CLEAR to the corporate giants that continually send jobs overseas to improve their bottom line. If the jobs were here would there be lead being fed to our children? Alot of you will probably think that I'm a raving lunatic. That's Fine.
Ok, so they've created the list of toys, we've searched and found some, so now what? I can't seem to find any info on what to do to get my money back? I hope we are not just supposed to dump these toys.... Any info out there on what to do to get my money back?
considering how reliant we seem to be on imports, for everything from food to baby toys... we should be very concerned with the lack of standards and the lack of processes in place for making sure what we bring into the country is safe. It's not so big a step from lead paint on toys to biological agents smuggled in disguised as something innocuous.
It is about time that people starting to think about us depending so much on China for most of our products. They have us here in the USA between a rock and a hard place; toys, household products, and many building materials, what happens if we can't get anything from them, we don't make these items in the USA anymore.
We have not allowed products from Cuba because they are a COMUNIST country, but allow China which is one of the Largest COMUNIST country to get us into this bind.
It's getting scary! I look around my home and wonder what will be recalled next. A major overhaul is needed of our safety system, that's for sure.
For the person who asked what to do if they find toys from the recall lists: Go to this page of the Mattel site, look at each list from the links that are located on the right hand side of the page under the video. You can view/print the recall brochures to see photos of the products and read instructions on what to do if you find some in your home.
http://www.mattel.com/safety/us/
toys don't have to be made overseas to be affordable. They could be made in America and we could still afford them if the big fatcat CEOs wouldn't take such a ridiculous portion of the profit. They'd rather pay for overseas slave labor and pad their own pockets rather than make a little less money and pay americans a decent wage to make safe toys for our kids.
These big corporations are greedy giants and our kids pay the price.
Got to love that NAFTA agreement. So, where are the MILLIONS of Americans who worked for these companys, who, now, IMport working?
America won't wake up and stop importing from China until the same America wakes up and stops buying from China.
I didn't bother to return the things I found on the list - I chucked them instead. I'm not sitting around waiting for some special label to send something back to them, then wait for a refund or whatever. I want that toxic junk out of my home and hope they get their ducks in a row before the Christmas toy shopping rush begins.
I wasn't surprised at all to hear a California family has filed suit against Mattel to get Mattel to pay for their children to be tested for lead. I think that, at the very least, Mattel should step up and announce in a nationwide press conference that they will pay for any and all lead testing and treatment that may be required upon proof from the parents that their children did indeed own those toxic toys. After all, it's Mattel's mistake, and THEY should pay for it.
Good site! Good resources here, All the best!
America is never going to stop importing from china.....where else can we get a $1.00 product and put a $25.00 price tag on it? if we bagged up all the goods in our home that came from some where outside of america we would be left with little or nothing. it is ashamed that our children are being affected by the overall slackness of "quick and cheap production"
i worked for a major toy company for several years and my best advice to parents when selecting toys for your little ones is check out the product throughly before purchasing. so many of their beloved toys have little painted spots and chocking hazards. gone are the days of playing with paper dolls, then you only threat was a paper cut or maybe a sweaty playmate!
Hello! Very interesting and professional site.
I have search and search the Mattel website and cannot find where to send the recalled toys. They provide the list and the paperwork but there is no address or how to ship the contents.
I know! How about we all watch our children like competent parents are supposed to do in the first place and make sure they don't EAT THEIR TOYS!!
Walmart, Overstock, Sears, Target, Kohls.... are some of good stores at CouponAlbum site (http://www.couponalbum.com).
Just be carefull when you are thinking about buying soy sauce it might have lead in it as well ;)
Just be carefull when you are thinking about buying soy sauce it might have lead in it as well ;)
Just be carefull when you are thinking about buying soy sauce it might have lead in it as well ;)
Just be carefull when you are thinking about buying soy sauce it might have lead in it as well ;)
Just be carefull when you are thinking about buying soy sauce it might have lead in it as well ;)