Posted on 08/14/2007 11:31:18 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Official: China knew about magnets
BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China knew about problems with magnets on toys as long ago as March, an industry official said on Wednesday, following a second massive recall of Chinese-made Mattel toys due to hazards from small, powerful magnets.
Mattel's Barbie and Tanner doll set is one of the products being recalled.
1 of 2 Mattel Inc. the largest U.S. toy company, recalled millions more Chinese-made toys on Tuesday due to hazards from the magnets and lead paint, and warned it may recall additional products as it steps up testing.
"We knew about the situation, because since March some toys had been recalled due to magnetic-parts problems," an official with the China Toy Association, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
She did not elaborate on why it had taken so long for something to be done.
The new recall involves about 18.2 million magnetic toys globally, including 9.5 million in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Ping!
Also lots of Chinese toys with lead paint.
>>China knew about magnets<<
And, China knew about lead in paint, poison in toothpaste, and deadly ingredients in pet food....
How much more will we take? (To save a couple dollars?)
Any label that states, “Totally Grown, Fed, Manufactured, Produced, Packaged, Assembled and Made in USA” is what I will buy.
(Not one that says, “Distributed in the USA”, which means the country of origin is being deliberately hidden)
There are some strong acids in your sromach t hat can corrode many metals and cause them to eenter you blood stream.
The magnets found each other in her intestines and clamped together with tissue in between. It punctured her intestines and it almost killed her...
So that’s the deal with magnets in kids toys...
What possible legitimate reason could there be to deny consumers information about foreign content or manufacture?
If China is synonymous with slave labor, international aggressiveness, army-owned businesses, shoddy workmanship, hazardous products and contamination, that is the problem. The MADE IN CHINA label is not the problem.
That problem cannot be solved by eliminating the label.
As it is now, US consumers are being duped into using dangerous products. How can our government justify taking the side of Chinese manufacturers who have so demonstrably ignored our citizens’ safety and welfare?
It's always the same answer...
MONEY.
"Always the low price. Always." (Wal-Mart slogan)
The low price is more important than enslavement of a billion people. It is more important than the health and safety of American children. It is more important than the brutal torture and murder of dissidents. It is more important than the 750,000 Chinese dying every year from toxic chemicals in China's polluted air and water. The Chinese people often eat food deliberately laced with inedible and even hazardous substances used to "stretch" the volume of food for a seller's profit.
Two magnets usually repel each other. If a magnet attracted another piece on metal to itself, trapping tissue between, one piece was not magnetic.
Not defending the Chinese, just defending reality.
LOL, you might want to check your facts there. :)
“Two magnets usually repel each other”
Wrong.
Magnets have a “north” and “south” pole. Opposite poles attract. If the same poles are near each other one magnet just flips over so opposite poles face each other and then they stick together with twice the force of a single magnet to iron.
And here’s reality: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/14/toy.victim/index.html
I guess I need to get reeducated.
If you want to read the actual story, a link is posted in #14.
It seems that one is the fault of the buyers (as in the corporate buyers who selected these products) and not the manufacturers. They made the toys as designed, with the magnets. The paint on the other hand is a QC issue.
The Chinese have a state policy of killing children. Why should we be surprised if they are a little callous to their safety?
Well, I have to agree with you. The "eating magnets" thing is a supervisory issue with small children. Yet many parents have grown to trust the safety standards that have worked fairly well over the past few decades despite the number of recalls and deadly incidents.
And younger children when given the chance do tend to put these things in their mouths. I honestly believe the majority of susceptible children for this threat are those in daycares and larger non-parent supervised groups.
Or there are just many clueless parents out there who don't care enough to watch or check. Sadly, I think this number is growing these days.
TASTY LEAD FILLED MAGNETS...HUHHHHHHHHHH....
The magnets coming off is likely a QC issue as well.
I don’t now how they were assembled but it easily could have been substandard glue or any number of other things.
Oh, God, it's late! So late that I've fallen into The Twilight Zone!
Please -- tell me you're shitting us! PLEASE tell us you are going for the Guinness Record for poker-faced droll "I really said that -- with a straight face!" award.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry or vomit.
I'm going to try to break the spell. I'm going to see if I can force my way out of The Twilight Zone by chanting a differential diagnosis.
Government schools....
Government schools....
Government schools....
Government schools....
Government schools....
Government schools....
Government schools....
Government schools....
Oh, wait! There IS another possible explanation!
It could be that this character has discovered that there really IS such a thing as the "magnetic monopole"! And what's more, it's the ONLY type of "magnet" he's ever encountered in life!
Does he realize how RICH he'll be when he shares this amazing discovery with the world? I hope he calls a good patent attorney FAST, before "the oil companies" try to take it away from him!
[OK, I finally decided. *puke*]
You need to play with magnets more.
These magnets improperly detached from their larger toy assemblies causing the hazard.
He’s obviously not had much experience with magnets of different shapes and sizes.
Also, this is where I draw a line in the sand:
I will not give up my magnetic scottie dogs, despite the fact that I can't find them and don't remember which ends attracted / repelled.
I do hope you feel better now Don Joe, but do not count on me reimbursing you for the meal you up chucked.
May we now get back to discussing the benefits to American children’s health derived from chewing the lead based paint off toys made in Communist China?
If they are "small, powerful magnets" they are probably samarium/cobalt.
From a magnet site:
"You are cautioned, however, that ALL permanent magnets are brittle, and generally when allowed to impact each other, or impact metal, they will chip. The fragments produced in this manner can be extremely hazardous. Chips can get in the eyes if proper protection is not being worn."
Another possibility is neodymium/iron/boron.
And you need to play with yourself less.
So if a kid eats a smooth piece of glass and it breaks in the kid's innards, it's the fault of the company that made the glass? Unbelievable.
No more buying chinese products! Damn the politicians who favored increased commerce with china.
Your ignorance is astounding.
This issue was that the magnets fell off the toys intended for small children.
It has reached the point where no matter how low the probability or unlikely the event, the manufacturer is blamed. Never the parents or the child. Remember Jacks? Remember stepping on them? Now someone would sue.
Heck, I played with lead, mercury, solder and various glues that had really bad fumes that gave me headaches... I probably would have been better off with all the brain cells God intended for me...
We still haven’t resolved the issue regarding magnets that attract. Other people have explained the north-south pole issue. How clear is it now that magnets CAN attract, depending on which pole is involved?
Forget it. F.J. Mitchell is too proud to admit any possible error. Will just start insulting you personally.
How much stress did it take to make the parts fall off. If the kid had to beat the crap out of the toy to get it to fail, then I don't think the manufacturer should be held responsible, If the parts just dropped off, then that's another story. In my mind anyway it boils down to reasonable expectations.
From the story, there’s no indication she abused the toy to cause the failure but who knows.
I would suspect they wouldn’t be recalling if it had to be badly abused to fail. Anything can be destroyed with some effort...
Does anyone have a link to the story about the Chinese generals and elites discussing the overthrow of the US?
The magnets were specially programmed to turn kids into Communists.
I worked in product safety testing, specifically designing testing programs for McDonald Happy Meal toys.
The tests for toys intended for children under 3 years old are clear. There is a bite test, a drop test, flammability tests, pull tests, etc. If paints are used, you test for heavy metals in paints.
Lead happens in domestic paints as well. The allowable limit is very, very low.
McDonald’s has all its toys made in Asia for the last two decades. Statistical sampling and testing of the toys as they are being produced reveals any possible flaws before the toys leave the factory. The testing only takes a day or two.
It is clear to me that either Mattel did not randomly sample the toys properly to establish their safety or Mattel did not test the toys at all until they arrived in the United States.
Either way, Mattel took the cheap route and is now paying the price via their reputation.
McDonald’s was committed to never, ever having a Happy Meal Toy recalled for a clear safety defect.
Oh, one more thing. You need to have a brain to design the testing scheme.
Parts that can be bitten off or broken off should be tested as such. If someone fails to see a potential threat and does not test it, then a flaw will get through.
This may have happened with the magnet. Somebody thought the magnet was tablet-shaped and could be swallowed safely (like wheels from a toy car) and passed out the intestinal system. They failed to account for the possibility of two magnets being swallowed and attracting each other in the intestinal tract.
On the other hand, if the toy only has one magnet, it is probably not that big of a deal.
One might wonder if using such powerful small magnets in toys meant for young children is a good idea, really. I mean, there is always the chance of these things getting loose from whatever they’re embedded in, whether through normal use or misuse.
The CEO who wants TWO summer homes instead of just one makes huge campaign donations, that's how.
I admit I had to scroll up to see where that came from.
Where is Mattel in all of this? Don’t they design and set the requirements for the toys? Seems to me the manufacture was just doing that the client wanted. I think Mattel carries the lion share of the blame here.
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