China-made train toy in lead recall(Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway Toys)

JoongAng Daily ^ | 06/16/07 | Hwang Young-jin

[TigerLikesRooster]

China-made train toy in lead recall

June 16, 2007

	This Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway Toy is being recalled.

There is nothing friendly about the lead paint that was allegedly used in China to decorate Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway Toys, which are now facing a recall in Asia and the United States.
Local importer Zambus Korea said yesterday the recall here was voluntary and began as soon as news was received of a recall ordered by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with RC2 Corp, the importer of the toys in the U.S.
“It is due to a lead poisoning hazard,” said the announcement from the the United States.
“Some lead was contained in the paint of the products,” said RC2 in a June 13 statement.
RC2 said, “At this time, there have been no reports of illness or injury as a result of this issue.”
Lead is toxic and can cause adverse health effects including brain damage and kidney failure.
Twenty-two items imported from China to the United States from 2005 to 2007 are to be covered by the recall. The total number of the products that came into the U.S. tops 1.5 million.
Zambus Korea did not wait for official action.
“The company informed us of the recall even before we ordered them to,” said Choi Wol-yeong, head of the product safety management team at the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards. “As soon as we have the products in hand we will start testing.”
The agency will also have other China-made toys tested for toxic substances, but has not decided which items yet.
Meanwhile, Toys “R” Us Asia, a unit of Hong Kong’s Li & Fung, recalled the toys from its stores in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand.
China has been hit by a series of product scandals recently, including deadly pet food in the U.S. and poisonous toothpaste and drugs marketed in Latin America.


By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer[yhwang@joongang.co.kr]

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[I_like_good_things_too]

I’ve been trying to find all of the ones I have for a couple days now. Thousands of dollars worth of Thomas stuff & a baby who LOVES to put things in his mouth. None of my things are during the supposed dates of the recall, but I’m still a little concerned.

[ncdrumr]

I get emails from the Consumer Product Safety Commission whenever there's a recall. It seems like almost all the recalled products are manufactured in China, many of which for containing lead.

You'd think our government would get the hint. /sarc

[Vaquero]

You know I was always leery of Japanese made goods back in the 50’s and 60’s, I figured they were loading them up with hot material scraped off the Hirshima and Nagasaki area, to get even for being nuked.

I was wrong......he real secret poisonings seems to be coming from China instead.

[TigerLikesRooster]

They do it even without the direct order from Politburo.:-)

[ßuddaßudd]

We have collecting these over the last few months and I never let my boy play with these because they are made in China and I thought they may contain leaded paint at the time. I am now proven correct. I am very conscious about what my boy puts in his mouth to chew on.

[BJungNan]

Company management failing that lead to the lead in the paint.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Is China testing us?

[TheBattman]

But we continue to import Billions of $ in food, goods, etc. - despited continued reports of illegal chemicals, unsafe products, and a general ignoring of public health and safety.

Nice....

[HamiltonJay]

Thank goodness my Son is well past this stage.... so the ones we have are well older than the date range.

Keep on telling me how free trade is so great guys, really... every day more and more of what is wholey predictable is being descovered, now that folks are bothering looking.

[HamiltonJay]

Nah, its not some test, its simply the end product of when you give a nation that is basically a 3rd world nation that can’t even feed its people, wide open reign into your marketplace. This is why you don’t give nations like this free trade status! You make them earn it over time by requiring them to actually reform to gain more and more access to your marketplace.

But heaven knows we can’t actually trade sensibly, no... just let it all in..... who cares who gets harmed or killed. Just as long as the Fortune 100 keeps on running and Wal Mart prices keep dropping... who cares... just collatoral casualties.. no big deal.

[Cold Heart]

We have one of those train sets. My grand kids don’t put them in their mouths though.

I guess I’ll make molds of the trains, and then cast them in pure lead, and then paint them with non-lead paint.

[SFC Chromey]

shocked I say!

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

ping

[batter]

Watch the Made in China stuff.

Through my work, I tested some dinnerware (cheap ceramic stuff with a single color glaze) that was made in China. It had lead-based glazing on it and the owner's child had an elevated amount of lead in its blood. Buyer beware.

[batter]

Almost forgot - watch out for stuff coming from Mexico too (including food/candy, cheap toys, and home remedies).

[xp38]

I was in a store yesterday and saw some cookies shaped and iced in the form of popular cartoons (The Simpsons Disney characters etc.)(single ones wrapped in celophane) so I flipped them over and saw they were from China. They were ridiculously overpriced but that instantly made me reject them regardless of what they were or priced.

[I_like_good_things_too]

Yeah, I’ve told my husband no more chinese toys. Frankly, as I’m sitting here typing this, I’m surrounded by a zillion toys on the floor of the playroom, so my kids don’t need any more toys at all anyhow and thus it should be easy to cut out the MIC ones.

Plus I’m sick to death of putting all the stickers on the stuff after buying it. What’s with that? Why don’t they finish the product before sending it to us?

[CT102ndInfSister]

I’m SHOCKED!

not really