Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, October 4, 2007
I’m feeling betrayed on so many levels these days. When the spinach and the carrots were recalled due to contamination I starting thinking about all the things most of us do these days to make ourselves and our families, healthier and enriched mentally.
Now this latest recall comes up. If there isn’t a law now, we need to see that some new laws are written. I have links posted at the end of this article and I have assigned homework.
While I was reading the list of today’s recalled tainted toys and other items 2 things leaped off the page at me. First, some of the product recalled today have been on the market since March of 2005. These items were sold in book stores and gift stores. Second, why on earth has it taken more than 2 years to make the public aware.
The Baby Einstein Discover & Play Blocks and been in the mouths of babies and toddlers for 5 months now. Every mother, hopeful she may raise the next Einstein has thoughtfully provided an enriching toy for her child. A lead laced toy that after 5 months of being in the hands and mouth of her toddler, may very well have given her child a learning disability.
There are Alphabet and Math blocks, learning blocks and Activity learning carts that have been in the hands and mouths of toddlers for a gut wrenching 2 years. Long enough in fact to have gone into subsequent children’s hands.
It makes me sick to think about it.
Every now and again we hear a blip in the news about an illegal drug that had been manufactured, where is anyone’s guess, poisoning a number of users. As sad and tragic as something like that may be most of us can just let it pass and think ‘oh well they shouldn’t have been doing that anyway.’ Maybe we think, ‘they should have known what they were taking was made by some loaded, incompetent idiot in a basement somewhere,’ and we move on.
When young mother, and grandparents are buying toys they believe are to the developmental benefit of children and find they have, unknowingly put poison in their child’s hands the case needs to turn criminal.
I believe waiting up to 2 years to recall some of these items is criminal, and should be punishable by prison time. Waiting 5 months to recall these toys is criminal. Letting them into the hands of a child for any amount of time is unspeakable.
This is your homework assignment today:
First follow this link to see the list of items in the latest recall and send this link to anyone you know that may be affected by the recall.
Second write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Start the drums beating.
If you can’t write a letter to your editor (for some reason).
Send an email to your Representative in the U.S. you can find them at this link.
Canadian Members of Parliament: follow this link
Labels: China, Recall, Tainted, Toys, lead paint
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
More Poison Toys from China! Time People on This Side of the Pacific to do Some Real Time! PSMI Extra
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Healthy and safety officials in the US are saying that parents shouldn’t trust Mattel to make safe toys for their children. That it is the parents responsibility to be sure products are safe! Just think about that statement for a moment. How in the world would anyone that wasn’t an engineer or a chemist be able to do that?
Of course a parent knows what pieces and parts can choke, pinch, or harm a child. But, there is no way on earth a parent can detect the hidden dangers in any product.
In a statement totally from left field the acting head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission in the US told viewers during a press conference that 9 million toys in the US, (18.5 million in total) recalled yesterday that were made in China, was only a small drop in the bucket. The vast majority of imports, when looking at the picture in totality, were safe. Oh really? This leaves the impression they are all being tested or monitored; clearly not so.
The very idea that the vast majority of imports from China, be they toys or any other product is ludicrous. How would anyone know? China knew.
Reuters is reporting today that China knew of the problems …”with magnets on toys as long ago as March”.
Lead paint has been banned from any type of use in the US since 1978. There is no presumable way the Chinese didn’t know the paint they were using was lead based.
The whole idea that any of these tainted products from China were honest mistakes would be comical were it not so serious. Deadly serious.
There are obviously no checks or balances when it comes to the poison being allowed to be shipped out of China.
Adding further insult CNN produced their in-house-doctor expert telling people if they think their child may have been exposed to lead they should have them tested. Okay…..and will Mattel be receiving the bill for that testing?
My opinion is, telling people not to depend on the safety of Mattel toys is the same as telling them not to depend on the safety of Gerber Baby Foods, or Heinz Baby.
Mattel is fact more responsible than the Chinese. It is their fiduciary responsibility to make sure the manufacturing of their products results in a safe product. They have shipped their production overseas to bulk up their profits, they need to spend some of those profits on inspection at the source.
Are we really to believe Mattel can’t afford to have one man on the ground at each manufacturing site that is in their pocket? Another ridiculous idea.
Are parents now being asked to preform their own lab tests on children’s products? What in the name of government are people paying the gate keepers of health and safety to do these days?
Confidence is the only currency any company has when it comes to gaining and keeping customers, one would think they would guard that confidence.
Are we to believe Mattel can’t or won’t afford a ’standard’ steward at manufacturing plants no matter where they are located? INCREDULOUS.
In light of China’s documented inability to produce safe products the public needs to start demanding truth in labeling, starting first with ‘China Free’ labels.
A company in Utah, food for Health International thinks so too. They have plans to start putting stickers on their products saying “China-Free”.
It has become nearly impossible to determine what portion of ingredients in any one product originate in China. International trade be damned. I’m fed up with being fed the party line.
“China-Free” stickers are an idea whose time has come….come and gone… in fact it’s way overdue.
Contact Mattel, Inc. and tell them you are going to be “Mattel-Free”, AG Brands-Free, Fisher-Price-Free until and unless they can prove they are putting the safety of our children and grandchildren ahead of their greed.
http://service.mattel.com/us/contactus.aspx for toll free numbers to call
http://www.mattel.com/contact_us/ US email
Labels: China, Chinese, Mattel, Recall, Tainted, imports, lead paint
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
China-Free, Mattel-Free: It’s time to put our ‘collective’ foot down!
