Figures and quotes via: Yahoo News
Toy producing giant Mattel, once again faces another blow to its reputation when on Wednesday it was announced they would be issuing a third sweeping recall in less then six months.
As many as 530,000 toy products on the market and for sale in the United States and 318,000 others sold overseas. Like the last recall in August, the toys in question are being recalled, due to lead paint coating the toys that exceed the legal amounts that can be used in the United States. Also like the toys recalled in August, they were manufactured in China.
In total as many as eleven toy products, including such mainstays of the sixty-two year old toy giant as Fisher Price Toys and Barbie Doll accessories, are now deemed to fall under the category of those being recalled.
Since the Spring products from China have been found to present healthy and safety threats to people and pets alike. In March dog and cat food was found to be tainted, resulting in the illness and death of a number of pets. And twice in the summer Mattel, issued recalls of various popular products due to lead paint that could cause sickness as well as attachments to toys that could present choking hazards to young children , especially toddlers. In the latest toy recall, no injuries or deaths have yet been documented or reported.
The Chinese Communist Government, which has been roundly criticized for their barren and cheap labor practices and treatments of workers, has also come under fire (as well as gaining the business of several large companies) that often have lax safety enforcement to save money on production of these products, even at the fatal danger of health and safety defects. But as recently as a day prior to the latest recall the Chinese government denied that it’s practices and manufacturing procedures were the catalysts of the latest flaws in the toys in question. Instead they blame design flaws on the latest hazards.
Nevertheless, in Europe, Chinese made Goods and the manufacturing policies of the government have come under the attention and criticism of the European Union. Mattel toys are sold not just in the United States but also in Europe and all around the globe. If current policies are kept in effect and no new safeguards or alterations to Chinese manufacturing procedures are put into place, then China, which in the past decades has grown into a manufacturing powerhouse, producing much of the low prioce goods sold all over the world, including in stores like Wal-Mart; could face economic punishment.
“Frankly if we don’t see a very substantial improvement by the end of October…. then we will look again at the possibility of bans,” stated Helen Kearns the European Commission’s spokeswoman for consumer issues.
Throughout America, the latest dangers said to be presented by these toys has churned up talk across the country and in various corners of Washington D.C as well as in the coffee houses, gymnasiums, barns, and downtown streets of Iowa and New Hampshire, where Presidential candidates in both the Democratic and Republican Parties are competing for the votes, confidence, and accolades of the public.
Former First Lady and current New York Senator, and Democratic Presidential front runner Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed outrage at the dangers facing consumers who purchase these hazardous products, that rest in the toy boxes and playrooms of America.
“It is simply unacceptable that in 2007 parents should have to fear for thier child’s safety every time they buy a toy.”
Clinton’s opponent for the Democratic Nomination, former 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate and North Carolina Senator John Edwards, urged the Bush Administration to take strong measures in response.
” President Bush must order Consumer Product Safety Commission Inspectors to Mattel’s warehouses and collect samples of it’s full product lines and test each and every one of them for lead paint.”
Leran more on the lastest recall and the effected toys by clicking here.
MY Take: Once again this shows the peril a country can place itself in by looking overseas for almost all its products. In the modern world global trade is crucial and inevitable. However a country can best strengthen its economy, its images, its workers, its ethics, its safety, and it’s natural environment by looking within to produce at least some of its goods.
Tough economic action should be taken against China and a start to reviving our corroded manufacturing sector could be to put a lock or at the very least a limit on jobs being shipped overseas.
As I said in an earlier post China mistreats its workers and citizens, is one of the largest global polluters, and produces goods that are both cheap and now we learn can present a hazard to those who invest in such products. We should look at the situation as well as our own morals and although it is likely to be an arduous and nearly impossible step at this time from not buying anything made in china, we should cut down, and instead set up the means and look towards the talent in our own communities to purchase goods that are of higher quality and produced in a more ethical way.
Boxothoughts 