Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, October 11, 2007
More trouble for Mattel. You remember those are the people we used to trust to make toys for our children. If Mattel is able to survive their latest troubles I will be surprised.
Shareholders have lost up to 20% of the value of their stocks and are now finding out they may have been knowingly fleeced. Mattel toy problems didn’t start, nor will they stop with the massive recall of toys made in China with up to 186 times the legal level of lead.
If there could possibly be a worse offense than failing to report the injuries to children caused by their products, for months and in some cases knowing about dangerous defects for years; I don’t know what it could be.
The morally reprehensible team in charge at Mattel needs to face a jury for their negligent actions. Mattel was well aware of their safety failures, yet they failed to report and recall products that caused fires in homes, burned children, and in at least one case caused an infant to undergo lung surgery after a small piece of Mattel was inhaled.
One might assume if Mattel failed to report product defects they were aware of, they may certainly have been busy covering them up. Apparently in no case were they busy fixing these failures.
At least Mattel will have to face the justice system. Sterling Heights Police & Fire Retirement system, Michigan, has filed a suit seeking compensatory and other damages, the suit alleges Mattel failed to be forthright in its reporting defects in its products to regulators.
Adding to Mattel’s problems the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, will soon become involved as evidence surfaces that Mattel directors may have sold off at least $33 million dollars worth of their own stock shortly before 10’s of millions of Mattel toys were recalled. We can anticipate other shareholders to follow suit.
China is none too happy with the Mattel problems further tarnishing their reputation. China has plenty of product problems of their own without Mattel heaping on more.
If malfeasance is met with a blind eye in the U.S., insider trading certainly is not.
It looks as though, one way or another, punishment will be dealt to at least some of these criminals.
Barbie may have to sell her dream house and down-grade to a condo to pay her legal fees. And,this coming so soon after her break-up with Ken.
Labels: Barbie Dream house, China Toys, FTC, Mattel, lead paint
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Barbie Must Sell Dream House To Pay Legal Fees.
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
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Yes, one more bit of bad news when it comes to your babies today. Now it turns out there is lead in certain baby bibs.
Lead bibs would, of course, makes sense with all the gamma rays and what not contained in strained peas and apple sauce. This bib thing really may be the straw that breaks the camels back. Not every kid puts toys in their mouths, not every kid stuffs things up their noses, but unlike the lead paint issue, and the inhaling of magnets: Every baby spits food out…therefore the bib.
Feeding a baby is all about attrition. Who will last the longest, the spooner or the spoonee. Younger babies may be amateurs when it comes to eating solid foods, but they are professionals when it comes to pushing that food right back out
Every mother has take the spoon and in a scrapping motion reclaimed food from babies face. Every mom too must admit to reclaiming food that has been rejected from a clean bib. My kids had dozens of bibs, some were even plastic so they could be wiped down instead of tossed in the laundry after every use. This is the long way of saying, if lead is being used in baby bibs, the babies that were being fed in those bibs most certainly have lead in them. Conversely all children that played with the most recently recalled toys will not have magnets in them.
Importing goods from China has become the same as feeding a baby. China is the spooner that keeps sending us products for which we do not have a taste. We spew those distasteful tainted products back.
The interesting portion of this serving is going to be seeing who gives up first. Will we at some point say enough is enough, we won’t accept dangerous, unwholesome products from anywhere any more? Or, will we be worn down, until ultimately years from now our sallow ed faces and blank stares sing the refrain of:
it was gluten from China wot dun ‘em in.
Gluten, toothpaste, tainted fish, lead based paint, jewelry, baby bibs, pet food….you fill in your own blanks.
We need to contact our domestic manufactures and let them know they appear to be engaging in practices that are UNACCEPTABLE. We will not continue to return or spew back their products, but that those products will remain on the shelves….unless and until they change their practices!
We work hard for our money, we love our families, and our pets…we’ve come to expect better, we deserve better…..let’s not lose the game of attrition.
Labels: China, Chinese Tooth paste. DEG, Tainted, lead paint
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Let China Off the Hook? Accepting Tainted Chinese Products is Our Own Fault.
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!
