16.2 Million Products Recalled So Far This Year
A friend forwarded me this article from consumerist.com. The number of recalled products hits 16.2 million for 2007 due to lead contamination. That’s a disturbing number of toys to be recalled. According to injuryboard.com, the first excessive lead toy recall was issued on August 1 of this year by Mattel-Fisher Price. It has taken a mere 4 months to accumulate over 16 million products, the latest one being Aquadots because they were coated with a chemical that when swallowed acts like the date rape drug.
Another somewhat disturbing statistic is from another article located on consumerist.com. It seems that the percentage of American importers reviewing Chinese supplies is a mere 22%. I think by now enough people know about it and will avoid such products so if most American importers do not want to review the chain, they will just lose revenue. You have to spend money to make money.
I often wondered why lead would even be used in paint so I looked it up. Lead helps paint dry faster and tends to have brighter colors. Well, brighter colors would be more inviting to children but making a good toy will do the same thing. Makers of the toys could argue that kids should be supervised with dollar store toys, or any toys for that matter, but that does not mean they should be coated with a toxic substance in the first place. No doubt at this point people are wondering how long this has been going on. People are becoming less likely to buy toys, especially the dollar store variety, because of the concern for safety. With Christmas almost here, it will be interesting to see how the product recalls over the past several months will affect dollar store toy purchases. I don’t think anyone is asking for lead poisoning for Christmas.
Do you think the recalls will have an impact on sales this Christmas or will people still go anyway because of the price?
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