Report Warns Parents About Toy Dangers

Columbia, SC—Hazardous toys are still on store shelves across the country, even though there’s a new law that overhauled the nation’s product safety watchdog agency. That’s according to the 23rd annual toy safety survey, “Trouble in Toyland”, released Tuesday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG).

Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital released the report locally and two pediatricians talked about its findings. The main focus of this year’s report was on toys containing lead and toys containing a type of plastic called phthalates. Children exposed to lead can suffer from developmental delays, low IQ and even death.

Dr. Melanie Blackburn, a pediatrician at Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital, in Columbia, held a jewelry-making toy, saying, “When you look at items such as this, it’s for little kids 6 years and older. But there are little, small pieces and they’re jewelry that contain lead, and some kids when you put them in your mouth or if you swallow it accidentally, they can have toxic blood levels of lead.“

That was a surprise to Kelli Higdon because she’s very careful about the toys she lets her three-year-old daughter Madison have. “She has bracelets, so I guess I will look for that now,“ she said, sounding worried.

She does look for choking hazards. The report recommends that parents of small children use an old toilet paper tube to check for what’s dangerous. Any toy that can fit inside the tube is a choking hazard.

In 1979, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the sale of toys containing small parts for children under the age of three. The 1994 Child Safety Protection Act requires an explicit and prominent choke-hazard warning on toys with small parts for children between the ages of 3 and 6, but Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital found toys with small parts for children under 6 without the required warning.

This year’s report also concentrates on a toxic chemical in some plastic called phthalate. Effective February 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act bans toys that contain concentrations of more than .1 percent phthalates. But a legal opinion by the Consumer Product Safety Commission will allow toy makers to sell the millions of toys containing phthalates they already have. The U.S. PIRG found toys containing concentrations of phthalates up to 40 percent.

To view the “Trouble In Toyland” report, click here.