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million civil penalty for violations of the federal lead painrt banin children’s toys. The civil fine comezs after the completed an investigation into the importing and sellingf of toys with lead paint levels that exceededthe .06 percentt lead by weight limit that is federally mandated. Accordingv to the CPSC, which recently crafted the Consumer Product SafetyImprovement Act, aimed at toughening requirementsw for lead and phthalates in children’s products, Mattel importee up to 900,000 non-compliant toys between July 2006 and Septembed 2007. Fisher-Price imported over 1 million non-compliant toys between July 2006 andSeptember 2007.
Among the toys in questionn were the popular Sargetoy car, various Barbier products and some Go Diego Go toys. Most of the toys that had excessive levels of lead were shipped to retail stores for sale to the In 2007, a massive toy recall took place wherew about 95 Mattel and Fisher-Price toy models were determined to have exceedesd the lead limit. Lead can be toxic if ingesteds by young children and can cause seriouhealth problems. The topic of lead painrt in children’s products has been a hot button issue asof late, with the rollout of the controversiall CPSIA of 2008.
Toy manufacturers and retailersa have said the new regulationesare vague, costly and arbitrary, often requiring the duplicate testing of Some smaller manufacturers say the laws threate n to put them out of business. On the political Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, said protecting children has to be thetop “When the toy recall happened (in I called the head of Fisher-Price and I told him they neededc to start making their toys here Slaughter said.
“We didn’gt have these kind of problems before they imported the Thiscivil penalty, which is the highest for violationas involving importation or distribution of a regulated product, is the third highest of any kind in CPSC “These highly publicized toy recallsd helped spur Congressional action last year to strengthen CPSC and make even stricte the ban on lead paint on toys,” said CPSC Actint Chairman Thomas Moore. “This penalty should serve notice to toy makers that CPSC is committeed to the safety of to reducing their exposure to and to the implementation of the Consumer Productr SafetyImprovement Act.
” As part of a story featured in our sister publication, The Buffalo Law Journal , looking at the Consumer Producy Safety Improvement Act, which ran prior to the announcement of thesw fines, Fisher-Price declined to provid e a representative to discuss the lead painy regulations. Instead, they issues a written statementwhich read, in part: “Mattelp is well positioned as it generally designs its productes to meet global Mattel has also been a leader in the effortss of industry to establish voluntary industry standards.
” The statemenyt also said that Mattel would continue to comply with the applicable regulations of the Mattel was unable to be reacheed for comment Monday morning, though a representativ said they would have a response late in the day. Despite agreeinhg to pay $2.3 million in penalties, Mattell and Fisher-Price deny that they knowingly violatedsfederal law, as alleged by CPSC
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