Holiday shoppers beware; multiple dangers may lurk in the toy aisles of department stores, Target, Wal-Mart and many other toy retail locations nationwide, according to the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group.
OSPIRG released its 22nd annual toy safety report, “Trouble in Toyland,” which exposes the dangers of toys and the lack of product regulation, recommends congressional action and cautions parents about the toys they buy for their children this holiday season.
“Recent high profile product recalls have given us a chance to urge Congress to pass strong product safety reforms,” said Colleen Kimball, an OSPIRG campus organizer at the University. Currently, there is no government agency that tests toys before they appear on retail shelves.
Kimball demonstrated several types of hazardous toys at the Moss Street Children’s Center Tuesday morning.
Although the consumer group has seen an increase in the safety of toys and a decrease in toy-related deaths during the more than two decades of toy-safety advocacy, OSPIRG’s researchers say current laws are not enough.
“Trouble in Toyland” focuses on four hidden toy dangers: magnets, lead, toxic chemicals and toys that produce loud noise.
Small, powerful magnets pose a serious risk if more than one is swallowed, Kimball said. “These are not like refrigerator magnets.”
According to OSPIRG’s report, if a child swallows more than one of these magnets, they may attract each other and cause intestinal perforation or blockage. These are found in building blocks, jewelry and other kinds of play sets.
Lead found in metal jewelry, paint, lunchboxes and other children’s products also poses a serious health risk. It has been banned for use in paint in the U.S. since 1977 and is linked to a lowered IQ, health and behavioral problems, and death, Kimball said. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled more than 150 million pieces of children’s jewelry with unsafe levels of lead since 2004. This year alone, millions of wooden and plastic toys were recalled for excessive levels of lead paint.
Toxic chemicals such as toluene, xylene and phthalates are found in some toys currently on the market. OSPIRG reports that these chemicals are found in play cosmetic sets and some nail polish and recommends that the CPSC team up with the Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of these chemicals in products marketed to children.
Preschool teacher Nadine Grudzien, who has worked in the field of early childhood development for over 20 years and at Moss Street Children’s Center for the last 10 years, says these products are especially harmful to young children because “children are sensory-oriented and they explore with their mouths.” She also cautioned that no toy can replace adult supervision.
According to the CPSC, 20 children died from toy-related injuries in 2005. Almost 73,000 children under the age of five were seen in emergency rooms for toy-related injuries the same year.
The report also looked at excessively loud toys. The American Society for Testing Materials voluntarily adopted a standard of 90 decimals for toys, but there is no formal regulation for volume settings. “Almost 15 percent of children ages six to 17 show signs of hearing loss,” according to “Trouble in Toyland.” The report recommends that the CPSC protect children’s hearing by setting volume standards for toys that produce noise.
“The best holiday gift would be to protect children from hazardous toys,” Kimball said.