By JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Toys are
safer than ever before, consumer advocates say, but parents should
remain vigilant in keeping their little ones away from powerful magnets
and small items that can easily cause choking.
"The main trend that we saw
this year was that we didn't find as many toxic toys as we thought we
would," said Nasima Hossain, a public health advocate for U.S. Public
Interest Research Group.
PIRG examined more than 200
toys on store shelves at major retailers and dollar stores and tested
about three dozen toys for lead and chemicals called phthalates, which
are used to make plastic products softer but have been linked to
reproductive defects and other health problems. A 2008 product safety
law ushered in new standards for children's products, including strict
limits on lead and phthalates allowed in toys.
Of the toys tested, only
one - a Morphobot action figure - turned up lead levels that exceeded
the new stricter federal limit on how much metal can be in the toy. For
phthalates, the toys all met the federal standard for what's allowed,
though a Dora the Explorer backpack had levels that would trigger
disclosure under Washington state and California law, the report said.
Small toys that could choke
children and loud toys that could possibly lead to hearing loss were
the primary concern of this year's report.
A Dora the Explorer guitar
and a set of colorful toy car keys for infants were cited for being
excessively loud. Play food sets of everything from little strawberries
to miniature sausage as well as small dragster cars that had tiny rubber
traction bands on the wheels that could come loose were all listed as
small enough to cause a child to choke.
The group also highlighted
renewed concerns about magnets, especially the high-powered magnets in
executive desktop toys for adults or a finger-play magnet toy for kids
called Snake Eggs that PIRG found at a dollar store.
PIRG cited government
estimates of 1,700 emergency room visits between 2009 and 2011 involving
the ingestion of high-powered magnets. Most cases involved children
between 4 and 12 years old. Older children have accidentally ingested
the balls while trying to mimic tongue piercings. The magnets, such as
the ones in the popular Buckyball desktop toys, can cling together if
swallowed, pinch internal tissue and lead to serious injuries.
The Toy Industry
Association's Stacy Leistner says his group agrees that strong magnets
are a risk for children and should not be available to them.
The Consumer Product Safety
Commission this summer sued New York-based Maxfield and Oberton, the
maker of the Buckyball desktop toys, to stop their sale. The
finger-fidget toys are designed for adults, but CPSC said it was seeing
too many injuries involving children.
Maxfield has maintained the
toys are for adults, marketed to adults and carry clear warning labels -
but it announced last month that it would stop making the Buckyball
series. CPSC is considering a ban on high-powered magnet sets.
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2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PIRG found a Dora the Explorer guitar tested slightly above the limit that hearing experts recommend.
