CONSUMERS : It’s Cute, It’s Fun, but . . . Is It Safe? : * Toys: Watchdog groups urge consumers to inspect playthings before purchase. Hazards include small parts that can be swallowed.
Looking for just the right Christmas toy for your favorite tot?
It might be the wrong one--possibly dangerous to the child.
Experts say parents and other toy buyers should carefully read the labels and inspect items they’re considering. Don’t assume that just because the toy is being sold in stores, it is safe.
Although most major toy manufacturers extensively test their toys long before the items get to market, consumer watchdog groups have found that some toys do not measure up to the safety standards set down by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
“Toys are supposed to bring children pleasure and joy, but too often bring pain and sometimes even death,” said Jeffrey Francis of the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), an arm of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) in Boston.
According to federal officials, 23 children died nationwide last year as a result of toy-related injuries; an estimated 129,000 were injured by toys.
Last week, USPIRG published a survey listing 21 toys sold in 26 states that could pose choking hazards to young children. Ten of those toys were found by CALPIRG researchers in toy stores in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Santa Cruz and San Diego.
And on Monday, the Institute for Injury Reduction published its annual hazardous toy list, which includes more than 20 toys with potentially injurious features.
In addition to their danger list, both USPIRG and the institute also criticized federal officials for lax regulation of toy makers.
“The commission obviously needs to improve its regulations,” said Lucinda Sikes, a USPIRG attorney in Washington. “They’re definitely not doing enough. They don’t like to order a recall themselves. They like to work voluntarily and get the companies to recall.”
The report from the Washington-based Institute for Injury Reduction also takes the Consumer Product Safety Commission to task for alleged foot dragging on toy safety issues: “The CPSC continues to refrain from taking aggressive, proactive steps to find, recall and ban dangerous toys from the market. “
Commission officials, however, say the agency this year has recalled or asked for corrective action on 165 toys and children’s products that violated its safety standards. Last year 252 toys were recalled.
And they say the agency has increased its efforts to keep foreign-made toys that do not meet U.S. safety standards from entering the country. In a cooperative program with the U.S. Customs Service, the agency seized “almost 1.7 million units of unsafe toys” during the year.
But Dan Rumelt, deputy director of public relations for the commission, said that at this late date it would be difficult to get a potentially dangerous toy off the shelves by Christmas unless the agency already was aware of it.
Alan Schoem, director of the commission’s division of administrative litigation, said if the agency finds that a toy does not meet its safety standards after CPSC tests, the agency asks the manufacturer to “voluntarily take action. We send a letter of advice saying the product is banned and ask the company to stop selling and distributing it. If the company doesn’t do it, we would ask (for) an administrative complaint and then litigate. We rarely have to do that because 99% of the companies comply.”
But Schoem admitted that if the Consumer Product Safety Commission does begin legal proceedings against a manufacturer producing a hazardous toy, the lawsuit “takes a while,” and during that time “the company can continue to sell it while we litigate.”
Toys R Us, the giant national toy outlet chain based in Paramus, N.J., will remove only toys banned by the commission from its stores, not those deemed unsafe by other consumer groups, said spokeswoman Angela Bourdon.
Toys R Us does not test the toys it sells, Bourdon said, except “an imported item made in our name for us. Then we would test it.”
Mattel Inc., the Hawthorne-based international toy manufacturer, does “vigorous testing” of all toys in several stages--before and after the toy is manufactured and sent to the stores.
In plastic toys with small parts, Mattel places “trace amounts of barium sulfate, so it can be detected by an X-ray” if a child does manage to swallow it, said Mattel spokeswoman Donna Gibbs.
Texas-headquartered Pier 1 Imports official John Baker said that all imported toys his company sells are tested overseas before being shipped to the United Sates.
One toy Pier 1 Imports is selling this season, the Pull-A-Long Intelligence Wooden Play Bench, made in China, ended up on USPIRG’s dangerous toy list because two pieces pose a choking hazard.
The toy is labeled for children above age 3, said CALPIRG’s Francis, “but it has play value for younger children and should be safe for the age groups that would be using it.”
Francis said that his group’s survey found that most toys have some type of age labeling when the toy contains small parts, but fewer toys have the additional warning “contains small parts that may pose a choke hazard.” Toys with small parts that could have a choking hazard are tested in a special measuring tube to assure that a child couldn’t swallow the part. If the part can slip through the tube, it’s dangerous.
Baker said although Pier 1 does not test in-house, the brightly colored toy bench passed safety tests done by SGS Hong Kong Ltd. to meet CPSC safety standards for children 18 to 36 months, 36 to 96 months and above 96 months. The SGS Hong Kong lab is a member of the Societe Generale de Surveillance, a Swiss-based international product-testing group.
“Maybe there was something wrong with one they picked up,” said Baker, explaining that Pier 1 has made an effort for the past five to seven years to have all toys it sells tested. “But all the toys are tested to meet these standards.”
After the PIRG list was released, Baker said Pier 1 Imports was contacted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and asked to send samples of the toy bench to Washington for testing.
“We’re concerned,” he said. “But we’re not going to do anything until we hear from the CPSC. We’re still selling them. There’s no reason in our viewpoint to remove them until the CPSC rules.”
Jeep Jr. 4x4, a battery-powered vehicle for youngsters manufactured by Power Wheels of Ft. Wayne, Ind., a division of Kransco Group of San Francisco, made the USPIRG and CALPIRG lists for the second year, even though the company has changed the part that consumer groups believe dangerous.
The orange reflectors on the left and right side of the Jeep Jr.’s hood can “easily snap off and pose a choke hazard,” according to USPIRG.
“The group brought this situation to Power Wheels’ attention last year,” said Frank Kappler, a spokesman for Kransco. “Based on the report, we changed the reflectors to reflective strips. Nothing produced in 1991 had the reflectors. They all have the decals.”
So how did Jeep Jr. make the list again?
Some toy stores still sell the old model. CALPIRG’s Francis said that its investigators discovered the reflector-model Jeep Jrs. at several Toys R Us stores.
“What comes in (to a toy store) first does not necessarily move right away,” said Kappler. “So some are still selling. Our technicians say the reflectors are not likely to pop out and be a hazard to anybody. But we recommend they (parents) just remove the reflectors before the child plays with it.”
Consumers wishing to register complaints about unsafe toys may contact the CPSC’s hot line Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, (800) 638-2772; the Institute for Injury Reduction, (800) 544-3694; USPIRG in Boston, (617) 292-4800; CALPIRG in Los Angeles, (213) 278-9244.
