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IMAGE SOURCE: © iStockPhoto / boy playing with blocks / author: Matka_Wariatka
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Fisher-Price recalled more than 1 million toys last year due to violations of federal lead paint standards.
Parents are now shocked to find, many stores still stocking toys that are harmful to children, according to a newly released report.
“It’s difficult if not impossible for parents to know if the toys are harmful, just by looking at them,” said Corey Tarreto, NYPIRG project coordinator.
The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) is calling for an overhaul of U.S. policies regarding toxic chemicals, better enforcement of consumer product safety laws, and increased funding for the CPSC.
A report released by NYPIRG as well as the Ecology Center, a nonprofit environmental group, outlined chocking and chemical dangers in popular children’s toys that are lining store shelves throughout New York.
Tarreto purchased a green plastic Pony Land toy, from a Dollar General Store and found it contained 95 times the safe level of phthalates – plastic primarily used to make the material soft and flexible, which has been linked to developmental disabilities in young children.
Because the law limiting the amount of chemical’s goes into effect in February, AFTER the holiday shopping season, the store is not violating any laws by carrying the toys.
By February 10, 2009 all children’s toys and products must meet new, stricter lead standards no matter when the products were made, according to a newly released legal opinion by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The report warns of many toys, among them: the Littlest Pet Shop Sportiest play pack, improperly warned of choking hazards and WALL-E Leapster2 had higher concentrations of arsenic and lead.
HealthyToys consumer guide to toxic chemicals tested 1,500 toys and found one third of them contained medium to high levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and other harmful chemicals.
Each one of these chemicals has been found to cause behavioral, developmental, learning and hormonal problems and cancer in developing children.
Despite industry promises last year to solve problems that made 2007 the “year of the recall,” recalls of toys and children’s products are up 22% over the first part of last year, according to an analysis of Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) data by the nation’s leading consumer groups. #