The Toy Recall: A Parents' Guide

1. What makes these toys unsafe?

Mattel recalled its toys for two reasons: lead paint and loose magnets.

The surface paint on certain toys, such as the Sarge car and some Sesame Street characters, contain excessive levels of lead, which, if ingested, could lead to such long-term developmental and health problems as hyperactivity, low IQ and kidney damage.

With other toys, such as Barbie and the Polly Pocket play sets, the problem involves small magnets, which are often glued onto the toys or attached to dolls' clothing. If a child swallows more than one magnet or magnet-containing toy, they can attract within the body, causing blockage or perforation of the bowel.

"There's not a lot of ways that parents can simply look at a toy and say, 'Does this pose a hazard?'" says Julie Vallese, a spokesperson for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). "We encourage parents to do inventories of the products in their home and match them against the recall lists on our website. Really, one of the biggest hazards of toys for parents is for the wrong age-grading. The biggest thing consumers can do in purchasing toys is to read the labels."

2. Is a child who has played with these toys in immediate danger?

No. Lead paint and loose magnets are potentially serious dangers, but there's no need to panic if your child has been playing with a toy that's part of the recall.

Lead can't be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, so a child would have to chew the paint off a toy and eat a significant amount of it before getting sick. "That's not easy to do," says Dr. Michael Shannon, an emergency physician and the director of the lead poisoning treatment program at Children's Hospital Boston. "But the risk is not zero, and if parents do have a toy that contains lead, then they would want to remove it, so their child doesn't have that risk."

How much lead is too much? Ingesting one flake of paint doesn't make an emergency. "But that's not child behavior," says Shannon. "Kids don't do things just once." The paint covering one die-cast toy car or the lead in children's jewelry, if eaten, is enough to cause toxic blood-lead levels — and the risk is greatest for children under the age of 6. There are no immediate, outward symptoms of lead poisoning, so if you suspect that your child has ingested lead, take him or her to the doctor immediately for a blood-lead test, which can be done routinely by pediatricians.

Loose magnets are a more acute safety concern. If a child swallows more than one magnet and suffers intestinal perforation, it requires emergency surgery and could result in death. In an Aug. 1 report called "Top Five Hidden Home Hazards," the CPSC ranked magnets at no. 1, citing one death and 86 injuries linked to magnets since 2005.

3. Why aren't these toys checked out before they get on the market?

In theory, the CPSC regulates the reliability of about 15,000 consumer products, including toys. But according to Vallese, her agency doesn't have the authority to test products before they go to market: companies are expected to self-police, and they're each responsible for making sure their products meet U.S. safety guidelines. Once a company learns, through consumer reports or its own testing, that a product fails to meet these standards, it has 24 hours by law to notify the CPSC, which then asks for a voluntary recall.

Vallese says the CPSC is in talks with the Toy Industry Association to initiate third-party pre-market testing in China.

"Parents should know that no toys are tested by the CPSC, no matter where they come from, China or Kansas," says Ed Mierzwinski of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "Toys from brand name companies and brand name stores are potentially hazardous, as are toys from dollar stores."

That leaves consumers to rely on manufacturers to do the right thing, which peeves child-safety-advocates. "For those of us in the area of lead poison prevention, it's becoming incredibly frustrating and worrisome that public-health agencies are not able to protect children from this hazard," says Shannon. "This recall is yet another example of something being wrong."

4. Why is China a particular problem?

Ten years ago, China had no product-safety standards. Today, thousands of Chinese companies manufacture millions of products — from toys and tires to pet food and toothpaste — for multinational companies, and safety standards are in place. But they're not enforced. Under constant pressure to produce goods quickly and cheaply, manufacturers in China sometimes cut corners or break the law — by using lead paint, for example, which is abundant and cheap.

Unsafe toys can come from anywhere, but the problem is most conspicuous with goods from China — the sheer number of them dwarfs imports from other countries. The U.S. imports $20 billion in Chinese goods a month. Five years ago, a third of all toys in the U.S. were manufactured in China; currently, experts estimate, that share has risen to about 80%. And no one tracks the safety of each of those products.

5. Should toy safety be a major concern for parents?

Carter Keithly, president of the Toy Industry Association, insists that toy safety isn't a major problem: only a slim minority of the 3 billion toys sold annually in the U.S. are recalled, mostly due to unforeseen safety issues or a single faulty production line of a toy. "We don't see a lot of injuries related to toys," he says.

Physicians like Shannon, however, think the risks are still significant. "This is the third major [toy] recall in two months, the 10th major recall in the last year. ... Whatever agencies have the charge of keeping this from occurring, it's not working," he says, referring to the CSPC and "to a lesser extent" the Department of Commerce. "This [lead] hazard just keeps appearing and appearing and appearing."

The bottom line is that parents need to use common sense. "Just because a toy has not been recalled does not mean it is safe," says Mierzwinski. He advises parents to keep toys with small parts — including small magnets — away from kids who put things in their mouths. And if your child has an incident with a toy, even if no one is hurt — say, the toy breaks but you take it away before your child is injured — Mierzwinski says you should inform the manufacturer.

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