Toy Recalls ~ Thursday Thirteen

Toy recalls have been all over the news the past few months...

1. Dora the Explorer Fisher-Price (a subsidiary of Mattel) voluntarily recalled nearly one million Dora products sold between May and August 2007 because of toxic lead levels in surface paint.
2. Cars Mattel also recalled more than 250,000 toy figures of Sarge -- the popular character from Disney Pixar's Cars -- because of excessive lead paint levels.
3. Batman Mattel recalled six different types of Batman and One-Piece action figure sets this August -- totaling about 345,000 pieces -- sold between June 2006 and June 2007, because of potentially dangerous magnets.
4. Polly Pockets Mattel pulled more than 50 different types of Polly Pocket play sets sold from May 2003 to November 2006 (about 7.3 million altogether) because of dangerous magnets.
5. Barbie & Tanner Two different types of Barbie and Tanner sets, sold from May 2006 to August 2007, also contained dangerous magnets (in the pooper scooper!) -- about 683,000 items in total.
6. Doggie Day Care Loose magnets in about 1 million Doggie Day Care play sets prompted Mattel to recall more than 10 different types of items sold between July 2004 and August 2007.
7. Barbie Accessories About 675,000 various Barbie accessories were found to have too-high lead paint levels; in September, Mattel recalled seven different items that were sold between October 2006 and August 2007.
8. Geo Trax Two different Geo Trax locomotive toys were also found to have excessive lead paint levels; Mattel recalled about 90,000 of them sold between September 2006 and August 2007.
9. Easy Bake Oven Nearly 1 million of these classic kid favorites were recalled in July because of burn hazards; Hasbro received hundreds of reports of children getting their fingers caught in the oven's opening. The products were sold from May 2006 through July 2007.
10. Thomas and Friends After lead was found in the paint of more than 25 different types of wooden trains and accessories, nearly 1.5 million Thomas & Friends products (sold between January 2005 and June 2007) were recalled this June.
11. Graco Soft Blocks Tower Toys The plastic covering on these activity center blocks can detach and pose a choking hazard to babies, prompting Graco to recall about 40,000 of the tower toys found on its activity centers (once the blocks are removed, the activity center is A-OK for baby to use, the company says). Products were sold from February 2005 to December 2005.
12. Sesame Street Fisher-Price (a subsidiary of Mattel) voluntarily recalled nearly one million Sesame Street products sold between May and August 2007 because of toxic lead levels in surface paint.

Among many, many others.... Now, the latest popular toy to join the list is my daughter's current favorite:

13. Aqua Dots Over the past couple of weeks, Sweetie has been playing with Aqua-Dots constantly. If I were to guess, I would say she has created about two dozen different designs. She absolutely loves this new toy and has even said, "This is the best toy ever! I just love them so much."

Past recalls haven't really concerned me too much. We don't have the toys that have been pulled from the shelves. Sweetie has a large collection of Polly Pockets and Barbies but none have the magnets that are the focus of the recalls. Buddy has a large collection of Thomas the Train trains - but not the wooden ones with lead paint. He also has numerous Geo Trax locomotives but they are older ones.

Besides, the lead paint recall hasn't really caused me too much concern. I'm sure we played with toys that had lead paint when we were children... as did our parents. To ingest lead paint, it is my assumption (perhaps ignorant or naive) that the child would have to gnaw on the toy quite extensively. Neither of my kiddos put their toys in their mouth anymore.

However, the Aqua Dot recall really scares me. The tiny beads look a lot like candy. I've seen Buddy put a few in his mouth. I stopped him immediately (before I even knew of the recall) and we talked about the dangers of ingesting things. I haven't seen him do it since but there is still a chance.

I shared with Sweetie the dangers of the toy and read one of the many articles on the web about the potential hazards. She became very sad. "But I don't put them in my mouth. Do we have to throw them away? I can tell you if Buddy comes over when I am playing with them. Why didn't they know this before they sold them?"

I feel for her, but this recall really scares me. Check out the link above to learn more.


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