14 November 2008 ~ 3 Comments

Toy Recalls this Holiday Season

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With the holidays fast approaching and my shopping efforts about to head into high gear I’ve been thinking a lot about the issues we all had with product recalls last year. Outside of dreading the trip to the mall (I am a terrible online shopper) one of the things I have not been looking forward to is cross checking the boys’ wish list with the Consumer Product Safety Commissions list of recalled/dangerous toys.  Well imagine my glee when I read that toy recalls (a major bummer last year) were down 46% from last year in the Washington Post.  

The toy recall numbers for 2008 were released during a press conference held by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Wednesday. During the press conference the CPSC said the number of toy recalls had dropped to 74 in 2008 from 138 in 2007. Additionally, the number of recalls involving toys containing lead has gone down to 45 compared to 97 last year.

I am sure you’ll agree that this is great news but I hope that they will remain aggressive and that this number will zero out soon.

The CPSC attributes the drop to their increased surveillance which includes more inspections, stronger voluntary safety standards and efforts of toy makers to keep dangerous toys off the shelves.

While this is great news I personally and still sad that the number is still as high as it is. While I recognize that there are thousands of toy makers out there, and that the CPSC has a tough job, the bright-eyed optimist in me still wishes they could get that number down to zero.

One bright bit of news is that the new safety standards take affect in February of next year! These new requirements will force manufacturers to test all toys and get them certified as safe by an outside party.

To stay up-to-date on the efforts of the CPSC I highly recommend signing up for their email alerts.  They are great at getting important safety information out right away.

Several stores like Toys R Us and Wal-Mart  and manufacturers like Mattel and Hasbro also provide information on toy recalls on their web sites

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    3 Responses to “Toy Recalls this Holiday Season”

    1. Amy in Ohio 14 November 2008 at 4:24 pm Permalink

      Oy – is it bad form to just give my two year old cold hard cash this year?

    2. Jennifer Taggart, The Smart Mama 14 November 2008 at 7:30 pm Permalink

      Can I be cynical and say that the drop may be due more to the fact that the CPSC staff is overwhelmed by the CPSIA (the newly enacted statute amending the Consumer Product Safety Act that is leading to some of the changes discussed in the blog) and does NOT have time to do inspections?

      Or that the CPSC only has 9 inspectors for all US ports for all of the 15,000 products that the CPSC oversees?

      Keep in mind that as of right now (and this changes 2/09), there is no standard for lead in toys – just for lead in paints and coatings used on toys. So lead in vinyl or lead as a colorant in plastic is okay. Yes, that’s changing 2/09, but wanna bet that toy manufacturers, importers and distributors will be making sure to sell through those toys this holiday season so that they don’t take the loss come 2/09?

      Jennifer
      http://www.thesmartmama.com

      Jennifer Taggart, The Smart Mama´s last blog post… Fetal exposure to hormone disruptors such as phthalates linked to reproductive disease later in life

    3. ShannanB 14 November 2008 at 10:09 pm Permalink

      Those are great points Jennifer. I am sure that’s what some manufacturers will be doing.


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