Did you know that last year a 4 year old boy died of lead poisoning? He swollowed a piece of a charm bracelet that contained dangerous amounts of lead. Since that time, we've all heard countless stories on the news about toys that contain dangerous substances. So how did we in the United States get to a point to where we were worried about lead and dangerous toxins in our toys?
When the Product Comsumer Safety Commission was created in 1972, almost all of the toys purchased in the United States were manufactured domestically. However, many manufacturers found that the same toys could be made over there for cheaper because of a cheaper labor force. That's also brought with it relaxed labor standards and relaxed controls on manufacturing processes because of lax enforcement in many overseas countries. At the same time, budget cuts took the once 800 strong Consumer Safety Commission and forced them to reduce their workforce to approximately 50% of what it was originally.
There is currently only one, yes I said one, inspector for the toy division.
How can we expect one person to accurately inspect the thousand of toys that are created every year. How does one person control and verify that every toy manufacturer that sells in the United States is maintaining the high domestic standards when creating toys overseas?
By 1978, it was determined that lead in paint was bad. So why is this still occuring? Bad manufacturing, bad managment of the CPSC, and too little control of overseas standards? Who knows. I wouldn't send my child outside to play in the street, so why would I want them playing with unsafe toys.
What can you as a parent do? Well there are a couple of things. Protest? Sure! (can you imgaine 1000's of parents taking their kids to a protest). While a protest might be a nice way of sending a message, I suggest using the power of the dollar and buying American, buying European, and carefully studying the companies that you purchase toys from.
There are also companies out there who make products that will allow you to check for lead in your kids toys. Check out
http://www.leadcheck.com/ and
http://www.leadinspector.com/gclid=CPah8vCq9o0CFRKzhgod_FnYLg.
Don't loose faith in the toy industry, just educate yourself to what is safe.
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