Personal Injury Law

Safety warning issued on foreign toys

A report by the American Association for Justice (AAJ) reported that 95% of the toys in the United States now come from abroad and many of them would not receive a thumbs up for safety from Santa! For example, once Chinese manufacturers were taken to task on the lead issue, they replaced lead with cadmium! Cadmium is number SEVEN on the top 10 list of cancer-causing materials. Noteworthy considering our country?s importations of toys from China, toy-related injuries have increased 54% over the last decade!

Be on the lookout for hidden dangers. A lot of these toys contain tiny magnets; if they come out of the toys and are ingested, they can cause incredible problems with the intestinal tract. If two or more magnets are digested, they can attract each other in the digestive tract, causing pinched, blocked, or twisted intestines. Additionally, scrutinize foreign products like toy jewelry, which can contain lead, lead plant, or other cancer-linked elements, such as the always-popular-in-China cadmium! Between 2005 and 2007, studies showed that more than 20% of toy jewelry contained unsafe levels of lead. Defective toys can be available on the shelves for years. A Public Citizen analysis found that companies waited more than two years on average to inform the Consumer Product Safety Commission about defects. Then, the agency took more than 200 days to inform the public. The federal government is so overwhelmed and understaffed, the lawyer organizations are helping out by forcing these manufacturers to deal with it!

Read more about safety issues for foreign toys at American Association for Justice.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog on December 15, 2010 (boomark / email).