Qingdao, China — Countries where America's toys are made also are places where paint often still contains dangerously high levels of lead.
Scott Clark, a University of Cincinnati environmental health professor, and his research team tested a variety of brands of paints from China, Malaysia and India, and found that more than 75 percent of the samples had lead levels exceeding U.S. regulations. Lead is added to paint to make it lustrous and durable.
In countries where products are made for consumption in the U.S. and the developing world, lead easily can bleed over from one batch of products to the next, said Christian Warren, historian at the New York Academy of Medicine and author of a book on the history of lead poisoning. It might be as simple as a worker not cleaning out a production vessel thoroughly enough between batches.
The system breaks down in other ways as well.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has trouble even contacting foreign factories to let them know their products are recalled. Typically, the agency sends letters in English and Chinese or e-mail to the foreign factory. But CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said the agency sometimes can't find companies' contact information.
Further, the agency takes no steps to track how many manufacturers it reaches successfully or whether foreign factories continue to export the goods to the United States.
Not everyone gets the word.
"We haven't received any information. I would know about it," said Li Huanpeng, manager of the Weiyi Metal Ornament factory in the southeastern city of Dongguan, which produced some of the 100,000 pieces of children's jewelry recalled by Ohio-based Tween Brands in May.
The recalled trinkets were found to carry doses of lead "toxic if ingested by young children," according to the CPSC.
Tween Brands said it no longer uses the factory.
"We detected the problem ourselves through our own independent testing, but there are innumerable mom-and-pop shops who might still have goods like these on their shelves," said Bob Atkinson, vice president of investor relations for Tween Brands.
Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.