Consumer Group Finds Hazardous Toys

November 25, 2008

WASHINGTON -- A warning for parents this holiday season: a consumer watchdog group says it found hazardous toys on store shelves.

A consumer watchdog group warns of potentially dangerous toys on store shelves this holiday season, despite the passage of landmark toy safety legislation in August. Most of the concern centers on toys containing pthalates--chemicals linked to reproductive and developmental abnormalities.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group sent 14 toys to the lab for testing and found high levels of toxic pthalates in two of them. Under a new law that takes effect in February, a pony that was test had pthalate levels 95 times the legal limit.

"It is banned in the new law. It should not be for sale after February 10, 2009," said Julie Vallese, with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. But those toys, and any others containing pthalates, will be sold until current inventories run out even after the law banning them takes effect. The CPSC said that's because the law does not apply retroactively.

"The manufacturers, I don't know if they've learned their lesson yet. The CPSC, instead of giving them a free pass, should...

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