How Safe Are YOUR toys? A study on toy product safety

1
How Safe Are YOUR toys? A study
on toy product safety

• Mercer University School of Engineering
• Professional Practices, Dr. Davis
• A.Fair

2
Societys reaction to the issue

• Today, China is responsible for about 100 of all
  product recalls-it makes 70 to 80 of all toys
  sold in the United States
• China manufactured all of the recalled toys last
  year
• Most recalls were done by the companies after the
  problems were discovered or complaints were filed

3
Society (Pt. 2) The recalls

• Hasbros Easy Bake ovens, and the Thomas and
  Friends train set were among the many toys
  recalled since last year
• Mattel alone has recalled more than 20 million
  toys in August, and 700,000 in September
• The main cause for the recalls were the
  lead-contaminated paint that was used to coat the
  toys

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Social Aspects (Pt.3)What are the risks?

• There are a number of risks that can occur from
  the use of faulty toys such as
• Choking risks
• Contamination (lead poison, asbestos, toxic
  chemicals)
• Injuries (brain damage, intestinal damage)
• And Death.

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Social Aspects (Pt. 3 cont.)A specific look at
the consequences...

• The worst that could happen
• A 17 month-old named Daniel Keysar died after
  being strangled by the rails of his Playskool
  crib
• Unfortunately, his parents found out (after his
  death) that the crib had been recalled five years
  earlier
• The main cause for this incident the lack of
  publicity given to the recall

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Social Aspects (Pt. 4)What does the government
plan to do?

• The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
• Julie Vallese, spokesperson for the CPSC says
  that the agency knows that there must be more
  done to prevent the hazardous products from being
  imported from China into the United States.
• CPSC has safety standardsHowever, only 100 field
  inspectors and compliance personnel conduct
  inspections at ports, warehouse, and stores were
  many toys are held and sold
• The staff at the CPSC has been cut by more than
  10 over the past 2 years meaning that there are
  less people to regulate the safety of products
• The Toy Industry Association wants its members to
  test the imported toys regularly
• Chinas own government auditing agency says that
  20 of the toys in China had safety hazards
  according to a report in the China Daily

7
Social Aspects (Pt. 5)What more is the
government planning?...

• The CPSC Act of 2007
• Plans to raise the limit on CPSC fines to
  companies (congress is still in debate over the
  maximum amount of money to fine but it may be
  100 million)
• Allows CPSC to notify the public more on product
  safety hazards
• Bans lead in childrens products completely
  (including but not limited to lead paint)

8
Technologys role behind the toy recalls(And
what the government plans to do about it.)

• The United States Consumer Product Safety
  Commission is to develop procedures for
  monitoring labs that test products for federal
  standards
• The CPSC Act of 2007 will create a procedure by
  which independent labs will test the safety of
  the childrens products
• Historically, labs tested products to see if
  they worked as the companys claimed
• Testing fees are paid for by the companies that
  supply the product
• There is a potential problem with this
• Testing can be ignored because the labs are
  dependent upon the retailers that supply them
  with funding for business

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A closer look into the problem...

• Wal-Marts relationship with its testing lab is
  an example
• Consumer Testing Laboratories, Inc. receives most
  of its business from Wal-Mart
• Until recently, CTL did not have the proper
  laboratory accreditations common with labs of its
  size
• It was responsible for testing all of the
  retailers toys that were found with lead
• In the past, faulty toys and cribs that have been
  recalled passed through test-labs before being
  sold
• CTL was given its Chemical Testing Certificate
  (which allows it to run these tests) only a few
  weeks ago by the Association of Laboratory
  Accreditation
• Today, Wal-Mart does not depend upon this
  particular lab as it did in the past

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Other problems...are engineers to blame?

• Other recalls resulted due to small magnets that
  were deadly when swallowed
• Lead to one death and 33 emergency surgeries
• Some recalls have less to do with design
  engineering and more to do with poor supervision
  of offshore manufacturers
• However, this does not mean that failures cant
  be attributed to design errors

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ReferencesBibliography

• Eviatar, D. (2008, January 21). Toy story.
  Nation, 286, 4-6.
• Katel, P. (2007). Consumer safety so government
  regulators need more power?. CQ Researcher, 17
  (36), 841-864.
• Lipton, E.S., Barboza, D. (2007, June 19). As
  more toys are recalled, the trail ends in China.
  The New York Times, pp. 1A-4C.
• Lund, A.E. (1998). Beware of toys. Journal of the
  American Dental Association, 129 (6), 680.
• Mcwilliams, G., Mcqueen, M.p. (2008, March 7).
  Bills give labs job of finding risks in kids
  products. The Wall Street Journal, pp. 1B, 2B.
• Ogando, J. (2007, October 8). A virtual hall of
  shame. Design News, 62, 10.

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ReferencesMultimedia and Images

• The sounds in this presentation were provided by
  powerpoint.
• The picture on slide 1 provided by
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageKnatterboot.jpg
  
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImagePlaydoh.jpg
• The picture on slide 2 provided by
• http//www.mazm.com/2007/09/19/38.toys-manufacture
  -in-china-25-pics.html
• The pictures on slide 3 provided by
• http//www.amazon.com/Thomas-at-the-Station-Set/dp
  /B00000ISOR
• The picture on slide 5 provided by
• http//www.kidsindanger.org/aboutus/danny.asp
• The picture on slide 9 provided by
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageWalmart_exterio
  r.jpg