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GUEST: Mike Russo, Consumer Advocate with CALPIRG

Earlier this year for most Americans, buying inexpensive toys for their children was an easy endeavor. Now, as the holiday season is in full swing, consumers trying to avoid Chinese-made toys associated with poisonous lead paint, they’re finding it’s not so easy. Eighty percent of toys sold in the US are made in China and 25 million children’s products have been deemed dangerous. Many toxic toys are still on shelves. Last month a toy called Aqua Dots was recalled after it was found to be coated with a toxic chemical that metabolizes into gamma hydroxy butyrate or GHB — the so-called date rape drug. Recently Consumer Reports magazine and the Illinois Attorney General found that a red Fisher-Price toy blood pressure cuff contained lead at 7 to 9 times the legal limits in Illinois, Fisher-Price agreed to recall it. But only in Illinois.

For more information, visit www.toysafety.net.

Download the Safe Shopping Guide published by the Illinois Attorney General here:
http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/
2007shopping_guide.pdf

Mothering Magazine’s list of non-toxic toys can be found here:
http://www.mothering.com/sections/
shopping_guide/shopping_guide.html#toys