Chinese officials say they will work with the United States to improve product safety following a massive U.S. recall of Fisher-Price toys, such as these lining shelves of this store in Beijing. Lead-tainted paint spurred the company to recall 83 types of toys in the U.S., for a total of 1 million items. Now regulators, manufacturers and others are contemplating how many more products made by Chinese vendors may be making it into the U.S., despite containing potentially dangerous materials.

Qingdao, China ? Brightly colored children’s bracelets and necklaces line the display case of a Chinese manufacturer in this factory town. Adorned with mini school buses, sandals and other charms, the jewelry sits ready to be sold to foreign and domestic buyers.

It also contains lead.

While the U.S. government in July issued a recall for similar items, branded as Essentials for Kids, officials at the factory said they knew nothing of it.

And because the CJ Accessories factory sells the jewelry to different companies with different brands, identical lead-tainted products could be on store shelves under other names.

The scene illustrated just one of many factors that undermine efforts to prevent unsafe goods from reaching U.S. shores, even after a dangerous product has been identified.

Three decades after the federal government significantly toughened regulations on lead in children’s products, American companies have yet to find a way to successfully screen the flood of imported products for the toxic metal.

The federal watchdog charged with ensuring they do so is overwhelmed and often ineffective. And the growing list of lead recalls of children’s products underscores how the metal – slathered on with paint or mixed in with other raw materials – is more pervasive than many American consumers ever imagined:

Mattel Inc. recently sent parents scurrying for the toy box with the recall of nearly 1 million Fisher-Price-brand Elmo, Big Bird and Dora products. Before that it was 1.5 million Thomas & Friends wooden railway cars. And not long before that, it was 2,000 pieces of Land of Nod children’s furniture, as well as hundreds of cribs and about 3,000 toy-storage chests from Delta Enterprise Corp., which calls itself the nation’s largest seller of cribs.

But the recall by toy giant Mattel raised the issue to a new and unsettling level, in part because of the company’s good reputation for quality control. It remains unclear how lead found its way into Mattel’s popular toys. And that is causing both fear and frustration from playrooms to boardrooms.

“I don’t think we understand yet what needs to be done,” said Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industry Association.

Pressure for change

The number of product recalls for lead is growing as imports surge, especially from China. An analysis of data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which oversees such recalls, shows that while there have been 135 recalls for lead content since 1977, a total of 70 of them, or 52 percent, have occurred since January 2004. Of those, 46 were for lead metal and 24 were for lead paint.

One study by chemists at Ashland University in Ohio tested Chinese-made jewelry from 10 retail chains and discovered that the average lead content far exceeded the federal limit.

The question arises: Are more products being made with lead or are consumers, companies and regulators simply looking more closely? That is difficult to answer, but some experts believe it is mainly a result of the increased scrutiny prompted by a huge jewelry recall in July 2004. The safety commission recalled 150 million pieces of children’s jewelry imported from India and sold in vending machines.

“The activists have sunk their teeth into this one, and the CPSC has responded to the pressure,” said Christian Warren, historian at the New York Academy of Medicine and author of a book on the history of lead poisoning. “We are more vigilant. … The question is how to get primary prevention. How do we beef up surveillance? That’s a thorny question.”

‘Still a missing piece’

Democrats in Congress, led by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have introduced legislation aimed at bolstering the CPSC’s enforcement powers and resources. But Durbin acknowledged that government regulation is not the complete answer.

“I have a friend, a major businessman who imports from China,” Durbin said. “I asked him how he handled this, and he said, ‘First, do your best to know who you are dealing with. But with all the safeguards, you will never know if that vat of paint has lead in it until it is too late.'”

Keithley said the toy association “very much supports” the efforts on Capitol Hill and wants to help develop industry protocols for the frequency and intensity of product testing.

But he also said with dismay that Mattel already was doing much of what Durbin is proposing and was well ahead of most companies in terms of testing, certifying and labeling products coming from China.

“I suspect what we’re learning is that there’s still a missing piece” when it comes to defining what needs to be done to protect U.S. consumers, Keithley said.

Experts in both lead poisoning and manufacturing advocate increased testing and inspections of suppliers’ factories.

“What is most needed is better diligence on suppliers and subsuppliers, including … surprise audits or inspections by qualified people who know the environment in China, the tricks that are played,” said Dane Chamorro, regional director in Shanghai of Control Risks, a global consulting company.

He said it is not uncommon for suppliers to provide excellent samples of raw materials to obtain a contract, but then to later substitute substandard materials to increase profit margins.

“Once they rope you in, they can cut back,” he wrote. “And a lot of Chinese companies will do anything to cut costs.”