Mattel Issues 3rd Major Toy Recall
(AP) – The Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Mattel, says it is recalling about 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 between September 30th, 2006, and August 20th, 2007. The action also involves 8,900 different toys involving Big World 6-in-I Bongo Band toys from the company’s Fisher-Price brand. Those products were sold nationwide from July 2007 through August 2007.
The announcement marks Mattel’s third major recall of Chinese-made toys because of lead paint in a matter of a month.
Mattel’s last recall, announced on August 14th, covered about 19 million toys worldwide.
Lead can cause brain damage when ingested by young children.
The news comes a day after theConsumer Product Safety Commission says itwas considering a possible investigation of whether the toymaker notified authorities as quickly as it should in connection with the recalls.
The federal agency stopped short of confirming that an active investigation is already under way into the timeliness of Mattel’s decision last month to recall millions of toys because of concerns about lead paint and tiny magnets that could come loose and be swallowed.
Mattel chairman and chief executive Robert Eckert defended the company’s actions to the Wall Street Journal, saying “We’ve gotten better at understanding and investigating. We’re generally able to report incidents sooner than previously.”
Federal law requires companies to alert the safety commission within 24 hours when they discover information about a dangerous defect in a product.
The information need only be enough to reasonably conclude that the defect could pose a risk of serious injury or death, or violates a federal safety standard.
