This week, a Boston-based group called World Against Toys
Causing Harm (WATCH) released its annual list of the 10 most hazardous toys.
Although WATCH has released its list for 35 years, shoppers are more stressed
out than usual this holiday season. It seems that the lead we've removed from our paint and gasoline has found it's way into the toy department.
China,
the Communist powerhouse which makes about 80% of America's toys, has often played the
villain during a year in which bathtub boats were found to contain lead paint,
and Aqua Dots were laced with the date-rape drug. But do all of the toys on WATCH's list really belong there? If Theodor Geisel was alive
today, the man best known as Dr. Seuss might rewrite "How the Grinch Stole
Christmas", casting his green protagonist as an environmentally-friendly but
overly-anxious parent who steals all of the "Made in China" toys from beneath the Christmas
tree.
"The children will be safe," the Grinch might say, "but at least they'll be miserable." And then the Grinch learned that his red sled had red paint. I wonder if Jim Carey is available for the role?
The Worst Three Toys on
the WATCH List
All kidding aside, The Y Files (Technorati Profile) will now examine the worst three toys on
WATCH's now-infamous list. Other unlucky toys will be profiled tomorrow and Friday, along
with a safe but ill-conceived product that deserves its own
"worst of" label.
1. Go Diego Go Animal
Rescue Boats was manufactured in China
and imported by Fisher-Price, Inc., of East
Aurora, NY. According
to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), these brightly-covered
craft use surface paints with "excessive levels of lead, which violates the
federal standard prohibiting lead paint on children's toys. For more
information, including details about specific lot numbers and refund criteria, click here.
2. Sticky Stones from GeoCentral.
According to the product description on Amazon, "our magnetic sticky stones
will amaze your child as he builds structures, and creates little stone
sculptures." Make sure that your little ones don't try to build Stonehenge in their stomachs, however. According to WATCH, Sticky Stones could "stick together across the intestines, causing serious infections
and death".
3. Jack Sparrow's Spinning Dagger from Zizzle. This plastic dagger straps to a
child's wrist, but that's where the similarity to Disney's popular "Pirates of the
Caribbean" series ends. Although the product's packaging states that the toy's small parts present a choking hazard, WATCH
takes Zizzle to task for failing to provide warnings "regarding the potential
for serious eye and other impact injuries. So is the pirate's eye patch just a fashion statement?
Click here for Part 2 of this three-part series.
Steve Melito - The Y Files
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