Mattel Recalls One Million Toys with Lead Paint

If you thought every Chinese product in the country had already been recalled, think again. Yesterday Mattel recalled one million of its toys for being covered in lead paint. Not surprisingly, all of the toys were made in China, and equally unsurprising, the toys are sold at Wal-Mart. Mattel says that it contacted some retailers and had them remove the toys from their shelves, but given Wal-Mart’s history with recalls, don’t be surprised if you see the toys being sold there.

Wal-Mart should take this opportunity to show that they are serious about the safety of their customers. As the largest toy seller in the country, other companies look to them to see how to react. Wal-Mart needs to lead by example and immediately stop all sales of these dangerous products.

Mattel Recalls One Million Toys [New York Times]

Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products’ surfaces are covered in lead paint.

According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China.

The recall, the second biggest this year involving toys, covers 83 different products, manufactured between April 19 and July 6. Many of them feature “Sesame Street” and Nickelodeon characters — including the Elmo Tub Sub, the Dora the Explorer Backpack, and the Giggle Gabber, a toy shaped like Elmo or Cookie Monster that toddlers shake to hear giggles and funny noises.

Mattel says it prevented more than two-thirds of the 967,000 affected toys from reaching consumers by contacting retailers, like Wal-Mart, Target and Toys ‘R’ Us, late last week. But more than 300,000 of the tainted toys have been purchased by consumers in the United States.

Mattel is hardly the first manufacturer to encounter a breakdown in the Chinese production chain. In recent months, factories in China have been sources of poisonous pet food sold in stores in the United States, dangerous car tires, and lead paint on the popular Thomas & Friends wooden toys. The Chinese government has said it is working to improve its product regulations, even as members of Congress have called for legislation requiring more inspections of imports from China.

This is Mattel’s 17th recall in 10 years. Most recently, an infant swing made by its Fisher-Price division was taken off the market because of a risk children could be trapped in its moving parts. And in its largest consumer action involving toy safety, in 1998, the company recalled more than 10 million Power Wheels cars.

Speaking of the new recall, Nancy Nord, acting Consumer Product Safety Commission chairwoman, said in a statement, “These recalled toys have accessible lead in the paint and parents should not hesitate in taking them away from children.” The statement said that the commission had launched an investigation and that “ensuring that Chinese made toys are safe for U.S. consumers is one of my highest priorities and is the subject of vital talks currently in place between C.P.S.C. and the Chinese government.”

Earlier this summer, RC2, the maker of Thomas trains, recalled 1.5 million trains and accessories because a Chinese supplier had coated them in lead paint. At that time, consumer safety experts and toy industry analysts said that Mattel was unlikely to face such a problem.

“There are companies that live up to their obligations to the government as well as to consumers, and they are one of them,” Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said of Mattel in mid-July.

But Mattel’s safety checks — which include independent audits of facilities and ownership of many of its own factories in China — did not prevent the chain of events that led to today’s recall.

In early July, according to Mattel executives, one of the European retailers that sells Mattel toys discovered the lead on some products. On July 6, Mattel stopped operations at the factory that produced the toys and initiated an investigation.

On July 18, Mattel took a reporter for The New York Times on a tour of a factory in Guanyao, China, and of Mattel’s toy safety lab in Shenzhen. At that time, Mattel executives say, it was unclear whether Mattel was facing a widespread lead paint problem, or if the European case was an anomaly.

Last Thursday, the same day this newspaper ran an article on the subject of preventing safety violations in Chinese factories that focused on Mattel, the company’s executives say they received conclusive data that convinced them to recall the 83 products. Then, the company contacted retailers who stocked the toys.

“This is a vendor plant with whom we’ve worked for 15 years; this isn’t somebody that just started making toys for us,” Robert Eckert, the chief executive of Mattel, said in an interview. “They understand our regulations, they understand our program, and something went wrong. That hurts.”

Mattel requires the factories it contracts with to use paint and other materials provided by certified suppliers. Mattel executives said they do not know if the contract manufacturer substituted paint from a non-certified supplier or if a certified supplier caused the problem.

Mr. Eckert said Mattel is considering a wide range of ways to overcome the problem, including reducing the amount of toys it makes through contract factories. About 50 percent of Mattel’s revenue comes from toys made in 11 factories it owns and operates. That is a high share for the toy industry.

But the other half comes from toys that it outsources to up to 50 manufacturers in China. Those toys tend to be short-term products that feature characters from movies and television shows rather than Barbie dolls or other Mattel brands.

In light of the recalls, Nickelodeon — which owns the characters Dora the Explorer and Diego — has decided to introduce a third-party monitor to check up on all of the companies that make toys under its brands, including Mattel.

Sesame Workshop, which oversees the “Sesame Street” franchise, is considering adding third-party testing, Gary E. Knell, president and chief executive of Sesame Workshop, said in a statement.

This summer, the Toy Industry Association has been working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on new regulations to require more stringent safety checks. Carter Keithley, president of the association, said the federal government needs to help the industry block China from using lead paint.

“We don’t have lead paint in this country any more, and they shouldn’t either,” Mr. Keithley said of China. “If there was no lead paint, then we wouldn’t have this problem.”

Thomas G. Rawski, an economics professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who has visited factories in China regularly since 1975, though not toy factories, said companies there are trying to check product quality, but more improvements are needed.

“The mechanisms for preventing this stuff don’t leap out of a tree,” Mr. Rawski said. “They have to be built up carefully, and I think it’s very clear this process of building is going on in China right now. That means there are lots of things happening that in an ideal world shouldn’t be happening, including things that wouldn’t happen in Japan or the U.S.”

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, August 02, 2007

COMMENTS

Get the lead out China.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

Alex in Ontario, Canada
Thursday, August 02 at 05:10 PM

Once Again, I Have to Call a “Foul” on You, Ezra

This story clearly pointed out that “retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Toys ‘R’ Us,” are responsible for selling these toys. Your leading paragraph is a little too intentionally misleading.

The “news” here wasn’t the fact that Wal-Mart is selling these recalled toys, the “news” is that we’re faced with yet another recall of Chinese-made products.

Now we see on the evening news that some legislators in Washington are getting all worked up over this. I’d like to see the voting records of the Congressmen or Senators who are making the most noise. Maybe they should have thought about this before they passed NAFTA and CAFTA and granted PNT status to China and welcomed them into the WTO several years ago.

ScrewedbyWal-Mart in Anytown, America
Friday, August 03 at 06:59 AM

I question whether Wal-Mart would voluntarily take part
in any recall of the products on it’s shelves. That would
cut into profits.

That is what happens when the Company’s financial
bottom line becomes more important than the safety
of the consumers who shop there.

Rob in Surfside Beach, SC
Friday, August 03 at 10:33 AM

Forget about Wal-Mart and all the hype about the lead paint
on the toys. How much do any of you know about the true
results, other than hype?

Lead paint was used for years on many toys, baby cribs etc.
No problems until the many government programs where men would not work and their babies would eat peeling paint in various projects and then develop problems. Not the
goernments problbem, but an individual one.

My family and others in the painting industry used lead paint for over a hundred years, it was a great preservative and we got it on our hands, washed them with gasoline, ate luch and went back to work. (I have been away from this industry for years) My grandfather who was with lead paint everyday lived to 89. I don’t know of onecase of these painters getting sick. One has to take care of their health.
Another way of lawyers making money to sue some company or individual.

Before you respond to my post please give us from where your knowledge is derived.

The Sage in
Sunday, August 05 at 12:19 PM

“Before you respond to my post please give us from where your knowledge is derived.”

The Sage in

Got this from Wikipedia Sage:

Lead paint
From Wikipedia

Lead paint is paint containing lead, a heavy metal, that is used as pigment, with Lead(II) chromate (PbCrO4, “chrome yellow") and lead(II) carbonate(PbCO3, “white lead") being the most common. Lead is also added to paint to speed drying, increase durability, retain a fresh appearance, and resist moisture which caused corrosion. Due to its toxicity, paint containing more than 0.06% lead was banned for residential use in the United States in 1978 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (16 Code of Federal Regulations CFR 1303). Paint with significant lead content is still used in industry and by the military. For example, leaded paint is sometimes used to paint roadways and parking lot lines.

[edit] Toxicity
Although lead improved the performance of paint, it is extremely toxic to living organisms. (Though, when taken in small amounts, lead may act as a vitamin by interacting with nicotinamide receptors in myocytes to aid in transport.) It is especially dangerous to children under age six whose bodies are still developing. Lead causes nervous system damage, hearing loss, stunted growth, reduced IQ, and delayed development. It can cause kidney damage. Lead affects every organ system of the body. It also is dangerous to adults, and can cause reproductive problems in adult men. One myth related to lead-based paint is that the most common cause of poisoning was eating leaded paint chips. In fact, the most common pathway of childhood lead exposure is through ingestion of lead dust through normal hand-to-mouth contact during which children swallow lead dust dislodged from deteriorated paint or leaded dust generated during remodeling or painting. Lead dust from remodeling or deteriorated paint lands on the floor near where children play and can ingest it. The U.S. Government defines “lead-based paint” as any “paint, surface coating that contains lead equal to or exceeding one milligram per square centimeter or 0.5% by weight.” Some states have adopted this or similar definitions of “lead-based paint.” These definitions are used to enforce regulations that apply to certain activities conducted in housing constructed prior to 1978, such as abatement, or the permanent elimination of a “lead-based paint hazard.”

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

Alex in Ontario, Canada
Sunday, August 05 at 05:33 PM

Didn’t the Romans use lead for water pipes? And look what happened to their Empire.

Ken V in Texas
Monday, August 06 at 04:16 AM

P.S.

The Romans were aware that lead could cause serious health problems, even madness and death. <b>However, they were so fond of its diverse uses that they minimized the hazards it posed. Romans of yesteryear, like Americans of today, equated limited exposure to lead with limited risk. What they did not realize was that their everyday low-level exposure to the metal rendered them vulnerable to chronic lead poisoning, even while it spared them the full horrors of acute lead poisoning.</i>

Ken V in Texas
Monday, August 06 at 04:19 AM

Alex,

“Paint with significant lead content is still used in industry and by the military. For example, leaded paint is sometimes used to paint roadways and parking lot lines.”

Oh how terrible, what if someone tried to chew on a ship, a machine, the roadway or a parking lot line!! People have this tendancy to forget about all the years before a year something was BANNED, where people didn’t drop like flies, because they didn’t use seat belts, unleaded paint, etc.!! Banning this stuff, isn’t ‘bad’, but people tend to go overboard!!

RDS in
Monday, August 06 at 05:00 AM

Oh how terrible, what if someone tried to chew on a ship, a machine, the roadway or a parking lot line!!

Or a toy?

Lead Poisoning

<i>Also called: Plumbism (or painter’s colic)
Lead is a metal that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust. People have spread it through the environment in many ways. Lead used to be in paint and gasoline. Lead can still be found in contaminated soil, household dust, drinking water, lead-glazed pottery and some metal jewelry.

Breathing air, drinking water, eating food or swallowing or touching dirt that contains lead can cause many health problems. In adults, lead can increase blood pressure and cause infertility, nerve disorders and muscle and joint pain. It can also make you irritable and affect your ability to concentrate and remember.

Lead is especially dangerous for children. A child who swallows large amounts of lead may develop anemia, severe stomachache, muscle weakness and brain damage. Even low levels of lead are linked to lower IQ scores.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<i>

Perhaps we’ve stumbled onto your problem, RDS, a lifetime of exposure to lead has made “you irritable and affect(ed) your ability to concentrate and remember”. (Not to mention “even low levels of lead are linked to lower IQ scores”.

Ken V in Texas
Monday, August 06 at 06:51 AM

Ken V,

“Breathing air, drinking water, eating food or swallowing or touching dirt that contains lead can cause many health problems. In adults, lead can increase blood pressure and cause infertility, nerve disorders and muscle and joint pain. It can also make you irritable and affect your ability to concentrate and remember.”

So, we should stop breathing air, drinking water, eating food or touchingdirt, huh? Now we know the truth, you have been doing these things and that is why you are so irritable about Wal-Mart and have a hard time remembering what REALLY happened in the history of the U.S.!!

As for me, I’m not irritable and have no problem remembering the past and I clearly remember when people worked for a living and didn’t ask that they be paid based on need!! For a long time, my dad worked 2 jobs, so that we could get a house, he didn’t ask his boss to give him a raise so he could afford it!! Also, I remember a time, when only the father worked and they were able to raise 6 or 7 kids, now, both parents have to work, to support 2 kids!! Now, you will say that the reason, is that wages didn’t keep up with inflation, but, the reason is really, inflation ALWAYS rises faster than wages, because wages drive price and price drives inflation, that and taxes too!! Somehow you want people to believe that in the past, people were getting real high wages and now they are going down in wages, FALSE!!

RDS in
Monday, August 06 at 11:35 AM

Somehow you want people to believe that in the past, people were getting real high wages and now they are going down in wages, FALSE!!

Like I said in an earlier post:

Who are you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ paycheck?

Ken V in Texas
Monday, August 06 at 06:13 PM

Ken V,

“Who are you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ paycheck?”

So, are you saying your GROSS income for a 40 hour a week is LESS today, than it was 6 years ago?

RDS in
Tuesday, August 07 at 07:21 PM

So, are you saying...

No, I’m saying wages haven’t kept up with the Consumer Price Index.

Ken V in Texas
Wednesday, August 08 at 05:03 AM

Ken V,

“No, I’m saying wages haven’t kept up with the Consumer Price Index”

And, does that have anything to do with INFLATION? I tried to explain how inflation will ALWAYS be higher than wage increases, because of ADDED cost over and above base raises, therefore affecting prices, but I guess you want to just IGNORE that!! Well, you CAN’T ignore it and still be correct!! As long as wages increase by 1% and inflation increases by 1.25%, the ‘gap’ between wages and the CPI, will continue to widen!! Wal-Mart is trying to narrow that gap, by keeping prices lower!!

RDS in
Wednesday, August 08 at 09:54 AM

For the past decade American workers have been told not to expect any raises as it will spur inflation. Meanwhile the fat cats get obscene compensation and the price of everything, except paychecks, goes up and up.

It’s a sucker’s game, this inflation you tout.

Ken V in Texas
Wednesday, August 08 at 02:19 PM

Ken V,

“It’s a sucker’s game, this inflation you tout.”

It sure is, and you want to keep playing it!! You want to keep widening the gap!! Give the Wal-Mart employees a raise, prices rise and soon everybody else will need a raise just to try to keep up, but, that will never happen, because INFLATION ALWAYS rises faster than wages!!

Here is an example of what I’m saying: Let’s say that you have $20.00, okay? I give you a dollar each week to spend on groceries and every week the price of groceries rises by 10 cents, so the first week, that dollar would buy you $1.00 worth of goods, but the second week that same amount of goods would cost $1.10. third week $1.20, etc., how long before your original $20.00 is gone and you are back asking for another $20.00, plus $2.00 a week instead of the original $1.00? If a person gets a $1.00 raise, they SEE the company only paying a $1.00 an hour more, what they fail to see, is all the ‘hidden costs’ to the business, over and above that raise, which get passed on in price raises!! Inflation is real, whether you want to believe it or not!!

RDS in
Thursday, August 09 at 10:41 AM

geez people, you think fighting back and forth with each other is going to stop the lead from getting into water, food toys, etc, you need to do something about it, you are not just one person, but a person with opinion, fact and concern, if you want it stopped, voice your concern, let them know how you feel and want this taken care of, contact people, distibutors, be your own detective, remember the movie “Erin Brockavich” it was based on a true story, at 1st she was only concerned about her family and their well being, then she dug deeper in the new job she got and fought for those people when no one else would, I am like her, I have a family, I do not want my children harmed by an innocent toy, that looks innocent, but could be harmful, because of some persons negligance, because they don’t pay attention to what they are doing. Don’t get me started on Government and politics, before we had Bush, we had money in the defficit when Clinton was President, now we owe more money to China then what we have to spend to start with thanks to Bush and wasting it on the war in Iraq, killing hundreds of innocent US soldiers, and for what?? his political views on terroists, votes, keeping office, some stupid reason or another, when there is so much at home in the US that needs help, homeless, taxes, jobs, minumum wage, all kinds that need more attention, if I had one thing to say to President Bush, I would tell him” President Bush, you need get your head back home and help your own country, focus on the people that need you to help them be a better people, lead them the right way by giving back to your country, fixing the problems at home 1st! “

Charlotte in Marion County,FL
Thursday, August 09 at 08:22 PM

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