Play at your own risk
Consumer safety agency urges vigilance in shopping for toys
Consumer safety agency urges vigilance in shopping for toys

By Hope Yen

Published: November 21, 2007

WASHINGTON — Despite a record number of recalls this year, potentially dangerous toys remain on store shelves days before the start of the busy holiday shopping season, consumer groups warned Tuesday. Federal regulators, under fire for lax enforcement, urged shoppers to be vigilant.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has worked closely with Mattel Inc. and other manufacturers on recalls of millions of toys tainted with lead and other products, yet two consumer investigations released Tuesday cited possible violations, including sales of toys with small parts that could pose a choking hazard.

"Why is it we are the ones that are getting this information out to parents, and not the government and not the toy companies?” asked Charles Margulis, of the Center for Environmental Health.

In CPSC's annual toy safety message, Nancy Nord, acting head of the CPSC, sought to reassure parents that the agency was doing all it could to remove unsafe toys. She noted the Chinese government recently signed agreements to help prevent lead-painted toys from reaching the United States.

"Toys today are undergoing more inspection and more intense scrutiny than ever before,” she said, citing CPSC's "daily commitment to keeping consumers safe 365 days a year.”

Still, Nord, who was traveling Tuesday and could not be reached for comment, urged parents to read product warning labels carefully and sign up to receive direct e-mail notices of recalls at www.cpsc.gov. A CPSC spokeswoman, Julie Vallese, also sought to downplay the significance of the two consumer surveys, calling the outside reports "subjective” and "confusing.”

Vallese left the door open to the possibility of several more CPSC recalls before year's end, declining to say if most dangerous toys had already been removed from store shelves given the recent spate of toy recalls. "When we find violations, we will announce them,” she told The Associated Press.

Joan Lawrence, a vice president of the Toy Industry Association, said more recalls were probable, given recent manufacturer retesting of products.

"That's why it's so important for consumers to pay attention to recall notices,” Lawrence said.

Among CPSC toy hazards cited:

•Riding toys, skateboards and inline skates that could cause dangerous falls for children.

•Toys with small parts that can cause choking hazards, particularly for children under age 3.

•Toys with small magnets, particularly for children under age 6, which can cause serious injury or death if the magnets are swallowed.

•Projectile toys for older children such as air rockets, darts and sling slots that can cause eye injuries.

•Chargers and adapters that can pose burn hazards.

The series of announcements, coming three days before the start of the busy shopping season, helped cap a year of harsh congressional criticism of CPSC enforcement following a number of recalls involving millions of lead-tainted toys and other products — the highest number of recalls ever due to product defects.

The agency's staff has dropped from almost 800 employees in 1974 to an all-time low of about 400 employees now.

Both the House and Senate are now considering legislation to overhaul the product safety system by substantially increasing CPSC's budget.

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