How Safe Are YOUR toys? A study on toy product safety

How Safe Are YOUR toys? A study on toy product safety Mercer University School of Engineering Professional Practices, Dr. Davis A.Fair

Society’s reaction to the issue • Today, China is responsible for about 100% of all product recalls-it makes 70 to 80% of all toys sold in the United States • China manufactured all of the recalled toys last year • Most recalls were done by the companies after the problems were discovered or complaints were filed

Society (Pt. 2): The recalls • Hasbro’s Easy Bake ovens, and the Thomas and Friends train set were among the many toys recalled since last year • Mattel alone has recalled more than 20 million toys in August, and 700,000 in September • The main cause for the recalls were the lead-contaminated paint that was used to coat the toys

Social Aspects (Pt.3)What are the risks? There are a number of risks that can occur from the use of faulty toys such as: • Choking risks • Contamination (lead poison, asbestos, toxic chemicals) • Injuries (brain damage, intestinal damage) • And Death.

Social Aspects (Pt. 3 cont.)A specific look at the consequences... The worst that could happen: • A 17 month-old named Daniel Keysar died after being strangled by the rails of his Playskool crib • Unfortunately, his parents found out (after his death) that the crib had been recalled five years earlier The main cause for this incident: the lack of publicity given to the recall

Social Aspects (Pt. 4)What does the government plan to do? The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC): • Julie Vallese, spokesperson for the CPSC says that the agency knows that there must be more done to prevent the hazardous products from being imported from China into the United States. • CPSC has safety standards—However, only 100 field inspectors and compliance personnel conduct inspections at ports, warehouse, and stores were many toys are held and sold • The staff at the CPSC has been cut by more than 10% over the past 2 years meaning that there are less people to regulate the safety of products The Toy Industry Association wants its members to test the imported toys regularly China’s own government auditing agency says that 20% of the toys in China had safety hazards according to a report in the China Daily

Social Aspects (Pt. 5)What more is the government planning?... The CPSC Act of 2007 • Plans to raise the limit on CPSC fines to companies (congress is still in debate over the maximum amount of money to fine but it may be $100 million) • Allows CPSC to notify the public more on product safety hazards • Bans lead in children’s products completely (including but not limited to lead paint)

Technology’s role behind the toy recalls(And what the government plans to do about it.) The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission is to develop procedures for monitoring labs that test products for federal standards • The CPSC Act of 2007 will create a procedure by which independent labs will test the safety of the children’s products • Historically, labs tested products to see if they worked as the company’s claimed • Testing fees are paid for by the companies that supply the product There is a potential problem with this: • Testing can be ignored because the labs are dependent upon the retailers that supply them with funding for business

A closer look into the problem... • Wal-Mart’s relationship with its testing lab is an example Consumer Testing Laboratories, Inc. receives most of its business from Wal-Mart • Until recently, CTL did not have the proper laboratory accreditations common with labs of its size • It was responsible for testing all of the retailer’s toys that were found with lead • In the past, faulty toys and cribs that have been recalled passed through test-labs before being sold • CTL was given its Chemical Testing Certificate (which allows it to run these tests) only a few weeks ago by the Association of Laboratory Accreditation Today, Wal-Mart does not depend upon this particular lab as it did in the past

Other problems...are engineers to blame? Other recalls resulted due to small magnets that were deadly when swallowed • Lead to one death and 33 emergency surgeries Some recalls have less to do with design engineering and more to do with poor supervision of offshore manufacturers • However, this does not mean that failures can’t be attributed to design errors

ReferencesBibliography • Eviatar, D. (2008, January 21). Toy story. Nation, 286, 4-6. • Katel, P. (2007). Consumer safety: so government regulators need more power?. CQ Researcher, 17 (36), 841-864. • Lipton, E.S., & Barboza, D. (2007, June 19). As more toys are recalled, the trail ends in China. The New York Times, pp. 1A-4C. • Lund, A.E. (1998). Beware of toys. Journal of the American Dental Association, 129 (6), 680. • Mcwilliams, G., &Mcqueen, M.p. (2008, March 7). Bills give labs job of finding risks in kid’s products. The Wall Street Journal, pp. 1B, 2B. • Ogando, J. (2007, October 8). A virtual hall of shame. Design News, 62, 10.

ReferencesMultimedia and Images The sounds in this presentation were provided by powerpoint. The picture on slide 1 provided by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Knatterboot.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Playdoh.jpg The picture on slide 2 provided by: http://www.mazm.com/2007/09/19/38.toys-manufacture-in-china-25-pics.html The pictures on slide 3 provided by: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-at-the-Station-Set/dp/B00000ISOR The picture on slide 5 provided by: http://www.kidsindanger.org/aboutus/danny.asp The picture on slide 9 provided by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Walmart_exterior.jpg

How Safe Are YOUR toys? A study on toy product safety