TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Mattel Issues Recall Of 700,000-Plus Toys

ADVERTISEMENT

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, The Associated Press

Published: September 5, 2007

NEW YORK - The Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Mattel Inc., announced late Tuesday that it is recalling more than 700,000 Chinese-made toys that have excessive amounts of lead paint.

The recall covers 675,000 units of various Barbie accessory toys that were manufactured Sept. 30, 2006, through Aug. 20. The action also involves 90,000 units of Geo Trax Locomotive Toys and 8,900 Big Big World 6-in-1 Bongo Band toys, both from the company's Fisher-Price brand. The Big Big World products were sold at retailers nationwide from July through August of this year, and the Geo Trax toys were sold from September 2006 through August.

The announcement marks Mattel's third major recall of Chinese-made toys because of lead paint in a month.

Mattel's last recall, announced on Aug. 14, covered about 19 million toys worldwide. They included Chinese-made toys that either had excessive amounts of lead paint or had small magnets that could be swallowed by children.

On Aug. 1, Mattel's Fisher-Price division said it was recalling 1.5 million preschool toys featuring characters such as Dora the Explorer, Big Bird and Elmo because of lead paint. That action included 967,000 toys sold in the United States from May through August.

Lead can cause brain damage when ingested by young children. Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than 0.06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.

Robert Eckert, chairman and chief executive of El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel, warned at a news conference last month that there might be more recalls of tainted toys as the company steps up its investigations at Chinese factories and retests products.

The CPSC is considering an investigation of whether Mattel notified authorities as quickly as it should have in connection with the Aug. 14 recall.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT