Many Halloween Toy Recalls Question CPSC's Ability
Posted by
Jenny AlbanoOctober 31, 2007 5:48 PMIn the past month the CPSC has recalled numerous Halloween toy products saying they are unsafe for children. Now the government is saying the the recalls aren't enough to secure consumer safety, they want new measures to protect people from foreign imported products.
The recalls include 142,000 purple witch buckets because of excess lead in the surface paint, 55,000 candy-filled skull pails because of the lead problem, 120,000 "Creepy Cape" costumes, 97,000 Mr. Potato Head "Make a Monster Pumpkin" due to a choke hazard, 63,000 Frankenstein cups, and today's new recall- "Ugly Teeth" which were recalled due to excess lead.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other members of Congress have called for the resignation of the acting chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Nancy Nord, and are proposing legislation that will, among other things, make it illegal to knowingly sell products that could be subject to a recall.
Those who want to change the regulations of the CPSC say that since trade has opened with foreign countries, regulations on imports have become much more lax and funding has been cut. Also, other countries may not have the same standards when it comes to safety practices for manufacturing. These problems make it hard to know items are safe to use.
The problem with recalls has become so widespread that some parents have been buying lead-testing kits at hardware stores and completing their own analyses of their children's toys at home.
For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Defective and Dangerous Products.