It appears new government toy regulations will finally put the makers of bad toys in the dog house, but required certification is also punishing exporters of naturally-made good toys, according to one of the most highly respected toy retailers in the Bay Area.
Ash Web, manager of The Ark in Berkeley, Ca, explains that companies such as Selecta from Germany, which produces popular wooden doll and dog houses (above), baby rattles and push toys, have to pay a hefty price for the greed of dollar-driven exporters of unsafe children’s products.
“Selecta uses natural vegetable dyes on its toys and beeswax coasting on rattles but they have decided they can’t do business in the U.S. market any longer because of the cost of testing,” Web shares. “On one level the intention to keep lead out is the right way to go, no one will dispute that, but at the same time they haven’t written the laws very well so it affects those of us who have been following the laws morally anyway. Its seems wrong.”
The new law imposes strict standards for lead and phthalates in kids’ products such as cheap jewelry and toys. Phthalates are described by Wikipedia as esters of phthalic acid and are mainly used as plasticizers added to increase flexibility in plastic products. The Ark, which owns three stores in the Bay Area, already avoids the cheap plastics, opting for more natural products, including reproductions of vintage trains and games with yesteryear appeal.
But other vendors of the fun stuff are suffering. According to a report in Money, the abrupt change and lack of guidelines has other retailers a bit bewildered about compliance. It says a toy store in Atlanta pulled 5 percent of its inventory because it wasn’t certain which goods would pass the regulations. “It’s a great law that’s being implemented terribly,” the store owner griped.
A judge last week nixed a 12-month delay that would have given toy retailers a breather, and also threw out the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) original interpretation of the law, which would have made the law apply only to toys manufactured before February 10, 2009.
However, the commission allowed a one-year stay of enforcement on testing and certification requirements. This gives the government more time to finalize four proposed rules that could exclude some regulated items from the testing and refine the methods for future testing. Meantime, retailers are still not allowed to sell the products. Web agrees the guidelines are “hazy” and lack clarity needed for compliance.
Larger toy makers have been gearing up for this and tightening their own standards since Mattel Inc. had to recall more than 20 million toys made in China because of lead in paint contamination and tiny magnets in dolls like Polly Pocket that children could accidentally swallow and choke to death.
At the time of the big recall, Mattel’s Chief Executive Officer Bob Eckert told CNN his company was getting its act together.
“I’m disappointed, I’m upset, but I can ensure your viewers that we are doing everything we can about the situation,” Eckert said. “Every production batch of toys is being tested, and we’ll continue to enforce the highest quality standards in the industry.”
China, which produces 80 per cent of the world’s toys, did the usual, shirking the blame. A spokesman with China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said Mattel “should improve its product design and supervision over product quality,” the state-run Xinhua news agency had reported.
Other dangers exist beyond the lead and other hazardous materials used to make toys for our children. Kinder Safe says many toys are made with sharp edges and points, flammable or loose parts, and other aspects that show makers are not considering how children play. “Some squishy balls are dangerous for all ages because they can ignite if thrown near a heat source and some decorations that are not designed for children appear to be toys and so are played with by children,” it says.
Consumers should always educate themselves about toy dangers at sites like Kinder Safe to stay abreast of what is best for their littles ones. Meantime, The Ark is grieving the loss of the gorgeous doll houses and games made by Selecta, a brand it truly respected. “Everyone really loves their toys,” says Web. “We will miss them.”