Nov 18, 2009 7:20 pm US/Eastern
Lead Found In Kids Toys At Several Retailers
MONTCLAIR, N.J. (CBS) ―
When the Center for Environmental Health pulled 250 popular children's products, they found seven of them had high levels of lead.
"No company wants to be the one caught with lead in their stuff," said Michael Green, executive director of the Center.
They independently tested these kids toys and products. The following were found to have lead:
- Dora the Explorer Activity Tote found at TJ Maxx
- Faded Glory Rebecca shoes from Wal-Mart
- Paula fuschia-colored open-toed shoes sold at Sears
- Reversible Croco belt from Target
- Barbie bike-flair accessory kit sold at Tuesday Morning
- Kids poncho sold at Wal-Mart
- Disney Fairies "Silvermist's Water Lily" necklace sold at Walgreens.
Lead can damage children's nervous systems. They're exposed when they handle the contaminated toys and then touch their mouths.
Walt Disney disputes the results saying, "tests showed the necklace to be in compliance with all applicable state and federal consumer safety regulations."
Mattel said it licensed the Barbie product and that manufacturer said, "it was an older product that passed safety tests in 2007."
Two years ago, lead-tainted toys led to a recall of more than 2 million toys and brought about stricter standards. Despite these new test results, experts said there were far fewer dangerous toys on the shelves.
"That scares you, because again, especially little kids, they put these things in their mouths," said Sophia Spechar, Montclair mom of three.
"We try to buy wooden stuff, but that's not always possible. They want the plastic, bright stuff," said Lisa Davies.
California on Wednesday, which has some of the most aggressive child safety laws in the nation, demanded retailers pull all the items from shelves. At Just Kidding Around in Montclair, they were relieved to know none of toys were sold at their store.
"We sell a lot of wooden toys. We do a lot of European brands," said Sally Owens.
Just one small step to try and ensure a safe and happy holiday.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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