As a parent, I am extremely concerned and worried that so many children are in danger. What makes it worse is the fact that some of these dangers are mostly unseen, like in the case of high lead content in paint. The bigger toy manufacturers can afford to recall their hazardous toys. What about the smaller toy companies? We won't know if a toy is dangerous unless it is tested. What about the dollar store toys? I'm sure most kids have played at some time with dollar store toys, most commonly received as birthday or party favors.
We really need to have some sort of rigorous and stringent toy safety standards in place. What do you think should be done to make toys safer? As parents, what should we do? How do we check for dangerous toys? Please post your thoughts, comments or feel free to email me at toys@about.com.
i find it unbelievable that i am a great grandmother with girls, ages 2 and almost 4and i am checking out 2 items from Disney/Pixar and 2 plates with bowls and spoons from Disney Princess to see if they have been recalled. i find this very troubelling for i have had to waste a lot of time on the computer in the last 3 days for just right after i bought them, i heard about the toy recall, the only ones i can find are from the Fisher Price, and one out of the two has lead paint. i’m still trying to check on the others. How in the world has this happened? think of the poor children whose parents haven’t heard or don’t have a computer. i even look at food and everything else i’m buying which takes a lot more time at the store, but if it keeps one of us from getting ill or worse, it’s worth it. our country has really gone downhill and all the chinese are doing is saving our money to take us over in the near future. it is a scary situation.they are all such cute items or i would takenall of them back already.
As a mother of two young boys, I also found the recent recalls very troubling, and I was asking myself the same questions: what can be done?
Since I work for Tiny Love, I actually had someone to answer me, our Quality Assurance director, who gave me some very reassuring answers in terms of all the tests that are done and the standards our toys comply with.
I think it could be helpful to every parent, so we have a page where parents can come and share their concerns and questions, and our team answers them: http://www.tinylove.com/blog/?p=198
Who is responsible for these “under expected” quality merchandises? Or are they really low quality?
A 0.99 item at dollar store, the dollar store buyer pays a Chinese manufacturer USD 0.23 and expects it to have a perceive value of 2.99, can it be? It is time to realize that these buyers care only about their profits. They call them “points”, a percentage that they have to make and care less about if the manufacturer can make them or not. We give you a 400 thousands pieces and work it out. Take a scale on the table and weight the plastic and ask you “I give you a 5% profit, that’s reasonable!?” Wake up, buyer! The more you squeeze, the more these manufacturers are going to try figure ways to save money. As the oil price keeps going up, the plastic price goes up, these buyers are asking the same quality of profits for the same prices!? They are crazy! They should be the persons who are responsible for the circumstances now, not the poor Chinese manufacturers and labors who work so hard for a tiny bit of profit and wages!
Wake up! Next time you go to the dollar store and think how can these be so cheap and yet not cheap enough, people are dying to make you those merchandises, that’s why!