Toy hazards

Despite the recent recalls of millions of toys, hazardous toys remain in stores across the country.

That’s the sobering conclusion of the 22nd annual “Trouble in Toyland” report unveiled Tuesday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

At a news conference at Memorial Hospital Central, John Schleicher of the nonprofit Colorado Public Interest Research Group presented just a few toys the report found to pose dangers. They included a Hello Kitty handbag with a plastic jewel that could be a choking hazard, Super Magnets that could cause intestinal damage if swallowed and an Elite Operations Astro Blaster Set deemed dangerously loud.

Schleicher called on Congress to beef up the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“The Consumer Product Safety Commission is a small agency with a big job that it simply cannot do well,” he said. “Congress must give it the tools it needs to do that job better.”

Schleicher also urged Congress to ban lead in toys, jewelry and other products used by children.

“Lead has no business in any children’s product,” he said.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled more than 150 million pieces of lead-laden children’s jewelry since 2005. This year, millions of plastic and wooden toys were recalled because of excessive levels of lead paint.

Schleicher presented a zipper pull made by an unknown manufacturer in China and found in some dollar stores that is 65 percent lead by weight, 1,000 times the level allowed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Children exposed to lead can suffer lowered IQ, delayed mental and physical development and even death. In 2006, a 4-year-old Minnesota boy died of acute lead poisoning after swallowing a charm on a bracelet that was 99 percent lead.

Dr. John Fugate, medical director of Memorial Hospital for Children, previously worked in Minnesota and was one of the boy’s doctors.

The child came to the emergency room on a Sunday morning, he said.

“Within about four hours, he was basically dying in front of us because his brain had swelled so acutely,” he said. “And there was nothing we could do about it.”

The most common toy-related hazard he sees is children choking on small objects, Fugate said. Though the law bans small parts in toys for children under 3 and requires warnings on toys with small parts for children between 3 and 6, the “Trouble in Toyland” report still found toys that could pose choking hazards.

There are plenty of safe toys in stores as well, Schleicher said.

“We don’t want to present an environment of fear at all, just awareness,” he said.

Parents should examine toys carefully for potential dangers before buying them, Schleicher said. But parental responsibility doesn’t end then, said Kelli Jones, coordinator of Safe Kids Colorado Springs.

“There is no replacement for a parent, an adult, being in the room when a kid is playing with whatever toy it is to make sure they are playing with it appropriately or that it’s not presenting an obvious hazard.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0272 or bill.radford@gazette.com

MORE ONLINE

The “Trouble in Toyland” report is available online at www.toysafety.net. For the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s “ABCs of Toy Safety” and a list of toy recalls, go to www.cpsc.gov.