Recalled toys and China

[argh]

People are making huge deal here of all the toys being recalled that were made in China. I personally don't understand most of the concern because it's with parts of the toy being swollowed, and you should probably be a little concerened if your child makes a habit of having toys for tea, but thats not the point. The point is there have been a number of recalls lately because of paint with too high lead levels, detatchable magnates and in one case, play beads that if swollowed could synthesise into a date rape drug type chemical.

There have also been other recalls lately concerning things like toothpaste, made in China.

China also produces most of the toys, and other good, for the world, and you're hardpressed to live without their products. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21825517/)

Are people overreacting? Is it the Chinese governments fault for allowing the products out, or is the the companies who outsource's fault for not paying enough attention to the people making their products?

Personally I blame the companies with a spot of blame for the parents. If you're kids aren't past the oral fixation stage, don't give them toys with small pieces (that includes things that don't seem it like barbies because their heads are detachable) and pay more attention. The beads that can be a date rape drug chemical is only harmful if swollowed, which it obviously is not meant for, so how many safeguards are needed to protect children? Isn't it better to teach them not to be idiots rather than to protect them if they are?

[katt]

well remember that people choke on pen caps and pens are pretty harmless overall. so part of the fault probably is stupidity/freak accidents

however some dodgy stuff does come out of china though. I remember in my microbiology class the professor told us a story of all these babies who came down with this illness suddenly in the US. and the doctors were trying to figure out where the outbreak came from and they identified the strain of bacteria as being from asia.

it turned out some chinese-made teething toys with water inside them were not properly sterilized and the babys were gnawing them open and ingesting some of the tainted water.

I think parents should ask themselves "is this piece of plastic junk really necessary for my kid?" there is so much stuff from china that is just plastic nonsense people toss out without thinking twice about and it just adds to the waste/culture of mindless consumption

and no one in their right mind would buy chinese toothpaste :P

[argh]

With the toothpaste as I recall it was actually knockoff toothpaste of Colagte and was sold in dollarstores.

[Boyinabox]

Whilst I think people have overreacted somewhat about the issue of the kids toys, there is a real problem with a lot of the products coming out of China. Toxic products aren't the only problem, counterfeits with massive structural flaws are also more and more available. Even high end goods, made by legally operating companies in China fail to reach even the lowest exceptable safety standards (see for example that Chinese car which recently got 0 stars in European safety tests).

We can't stop China from producing more and more of our everyday items, but we've got to make sure that the Chinese government improves the overall quality of Chinese goods, for both our safety and to ensure Chinas economic growth.

I've been a bit annoyed at how all the coverage of these recalls has been focused solely on the potential health risks to kids (as argh said, little Timmy would have to be eating and digesting a rather ridiculous amount to get even slightly ill) and not what this means for the workers in the factories in China, who are working with tonnes of these toxic paints and plastics everyday. The health implications must be enormous.

[killsteel]

You have to take things in perspective - China is producing a huge amount of goods, and so it must be virtually impossible to regulate all production sufficiently. There are plenty of companies doing plenty of horrific misdeeds all over the world, it's just that China has a great deal of both.

[Ozzylator]

I was actually astounded, looking at a link of recalled products in the USA, how often lead paint toxicity was cited as a reason for recall.

[Sloth]

With the toothpaste as I recall it was actually knockoff toothpaste of Colagte and was sold in dollarstores.

dollarstores are evil, i knew it!... i dislike them more than walmart... (if you ever work for a vendor that has to deal with a walmart store, you will dislike them as well.)

I few years ago I worked for a small catalog company. There was these really ugly santa dolls that we were going to sell for christmas... i called them the "sweat-pants santa", because it looked like he was wearing sweat-pants (clever!)

Well the dolls never shown. Finally we got a word from the vendor. They said they were made in a factory in China and they haven't hear from anyone there for quite some time. They actually went to China to check out this factory only to find it completely empty with the front gate chain shut. Nobody had an explaination about what happen....

[Smokey]

well remember that people choke on pen caps and pens are pretty harmless overall. so part of the fault probably is stupidity/freak accidents



That's why pen lids now have holes in.

Wasn't their trouble recently with toothpasts in Mexico or am I imagining it?

The companies who outsource to China need to make suer that the factories they are working are abiding to the stanrdards expected ie. no child labour, safe working conditions, decent wages. Plus it's not necessarily the parents fault, I believe one toy with "lead" paint was a Thomas the Tank Engine. They should be expecting that things which are sold in the UK are safe for usage.

[Tyris]

That's why pen lids now have holes in.And is also why pens now dry out even if the lid's on. Stupid chokey chewers ruining pens for the rest of us...