Third recall for China-made toys
The world's biggest toymaker, Mattel, has announced its third major
recall of Chinese-made products in a month.
About three-quarters of a million toys are being recalled because
they are decorated with paint containing too much lead, the US company
said.
They include Barbie doll accessories and toy trains. Mattel chairman
Bob Eckert apologised again, but stressed the faults had come to light
because the company had recently introduced enhanced testing.
"You have my promise that if we find any other issues, we'll continue
to do the right thing, we'll let you know about it," Mr Eckert said in a
message posted on the company's website.
In the last month it has recalled 18 million China-made toys -
because their paint was found to contain lead.
Parents were also urged to return other items which had small magnets
that may come loose.
In the past week, US branches of the retailer Toys R Us have recalled
27,000 Chinese-made paint and crayon sets after the wooden box packaging
was found to contain lead.
A fortnight ago, about 300,000 items were recalled by US retailers
including SpongeBob SquarePants spiral address books. and diaries,
Thomas the Tank Engine spinning tops and some toy buckets sold in the
US.
China has not commented on the latest recall but it earlier pointed
out that of the billions of goods it produces every year, only a
fraction are found to be faulty.
Beijing was quick to act after the first Mattel recall, revoking the
licence to manufacture goods at a firm in Guangdong province. The first
two Mattel recalls included Chinese-made Sarge die-cast toys from the
Pixar film Cars, as well as some toys including Polly Pocket, which
contained small magnets that could come loose.
BBC |