Business

Chinese toy recalls continue
by Corina Ciubotaru

Recently, traces of lead found in children's toys have brought about a series of toy recalls in America from important manufacturers like Mattel and RC2. Thousands of Thomas & Friends sets and Easy Bake ovens had to be returned for the sake of children's health and the problem is only getting worse. Following detailed inspections from government authorities, toy makers and store chains, another recall Wednesday aimed at some other Thomas components along with several kinds of jewelry and gardening equipment for children. Recalled toys include Spinning Wheel Necklace necklaces, Happy Giddy Gardening Tools and Children's Sunny Patch Chairs, some of the Knights of The Sword series toys, baby bibs, a Spiderman pencil case and a Neon Writing Slate from Wal-Mart. A total of half a million toys have taken part in this action and tests are still underway, giving rise to Congressional debate and attempts to make rules of toy control harsher. Currently, a level of 600 parts per million is considered the maximum allowed amount of lead in a product, since the substance, banned in the 1970's, may cause severe brain damage in case of prolonged exposure. Environmental and consumer groups have been trying to warn the government for years about this issue but it seems inspections failed to notice the problem until this year. Levels of trust in Chinese products have plummeted over the last few years but authorities in the Asian country are doing their best to make sure this situation doesn't repeat by making inspections of their own in toy companies.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070927/ap_on_bi_ge/toy_recall;_ylt=AgQ3lAbqyQ.tjiifVhGQUU6s0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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posted by Blog TechSource @ 2:04 AM