Toy Safety In The News

Stores across the country still sell toys that pose serious risks to children’s health, according to a report released Friday by the Texas Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit watchdog organization based in Austin.

The report, which group representatives presented at a press conference Friday morning in McAllen, concluded that toys in general are much safer than a few decades ago but identified a number of toys that pose choking or strangulation hazards, contain toxic chemicals or are dangerously loud.

"The good news is that toys are much safer than they were 20 years ago," said group advocate Luke Metzger. Nevertheless, Metzger said, more than 210,000 people — three-fourths of them children — sought emergency-room care for toy-related injuries in 2004, according to data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Sixteen children died from the injuries.

"As important as it is for the government to play a role, there is no substitute for a parent’s care," said Doggett, who led a Texas consumer advocacy group before his time in Congress.

Parents need to be vigilant, Doggett said, "so that the Christmas period will be one of celebration and not one of tragedy."

Federal laws ban toys intended for children younger than 3 from containing small parts and mandate a choking hazard warning label on products meant for children ages 3 to 6. But PIRG’s report lists toys that appear to violate these regulations, as well as others that contain parts big enough to meet minimum size requirements but are still small enough to block children’s airways.

The report also found problems with the way some toys are labeled. Phthalates, a class of chemicals that can cause reproductive problems, are sometimes used to soften plastic toys and teethers. But of eight toys bearing a "phthalate free" label that the group had an independent laboratory test, six contained tested positive for the chemicals, according to the report.

Among the toys the report identifies as potentially dangerous are children’s play cosmetics containing toxic chemicals, battery-powered toy weapons that emit noise loud enough to cause hearing damage, and water yo-yos, which can cause strangulation.

"We’ve gotten hundreds of complaints about this," Metzger said of the water yo-yos. "Kids don’t have the dexterity to control it, so it can wrap around a child’s throat."

The water yo-yo, which became hugely popular a few years ago, has been banned in many countries and in the state of Illinois. New York, New Jersey and Wisconsin have legislation pending, according to the report.

The report, available at www.toysafety.net, recommends tighter federal regulations for toy labeling and contents but also provides tips for parents, including using a toilet-paper tube as a test for small parts children can choke on and covering noisy toys’ speakers with duct-tape or removing the batteries.

Area physicians also attended the press event at McAllen’s Early Childhood Center, an educational daycare for pre-school age migrant children. They cautioned that they often treat children hurt while playing with their older siblings’ toys.

"We’ve got to remind our older kids to put their toys away when the younger kids are playing around," said Dr. Anna Guzman, a pediatrician who works out of the Pediatric Center of South Texas in Edinburg.

No statistics on toy-related injuries in the Valley were immediately available, but Guzman said she suspects the average physician in the Valley treats about one child per day for toy-related injuries.

"It’s really important for parents to be extra-aware around Christmas," Guzman said. "It’s really just common sense."

Kaitlin Bell covers Mission, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4446.