Dangerous Toys for Our Children

One of the many important roles as educators is to select toys that are developmentally safe and appropriate for children to use. Parents need to be educated and taught to differentiate between the beneficial toys as opposed to the toys that can be dangerous. There are different guidelines to review when it comes to selecting toys for the ages of birth till 8th grade. The manufacturer labels the toys regarding age and that follow certain guidelines where parents could relate to. Furthermore, toys that are manufactured in the U.S. after 1995 must adhere to the (CPSC) Consumer Product Safety Commission standards.

The problem surrounding Mattel Inc. is their mismanagement of international subcontractors and vendors and the production of certain toys (the manufacturing process), as well as their inability to adapt their marketing strategy or product to the constantly changing “demographic and socioeconomic trends.” This is supported by Mattel’s legal battle with Carter Bryant and MGA, their forced recall of certain toys that were manufactured overseas, and the increasing rate at which traditional toys are becoming less appealing to today’s young audience. Essentially, Mattel’s mismanagement and oversight lead to violations in terms of ethical and social responsibilities and safety standards.

The biggest environment force affected Mattel recently has been legal and regulatory with the high levels of lead paint found in their die-cast toys in 2007. This issue created a voluntary recall from Mattel for over 2 million toys and created doubt in customers to the quality of their Mattel toys. Mattel responded by immediately implementing a check system to accept paint only from certified suppliers, tightened controls throughout the production process and testing every production run to ensure compliance. Mattel said that it is working in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and other regulatory agencies worldwide. Mattel is also working with retailers worldwide to identify and remove affected products from retail shelves.

Mattel is starting to take a step in the right direction, according to Renae Merle from The Washington Post, “Mattel said it was strengthening its process for preventing the use of lead based paint, it will only permit paint from certified suppliers and require every batch to be tested, company officials said” (Merle 1). 80% of toys in the United States are imported from China, according to Renae Merle, and 65% of those toys are created by Mattel. Although that is a step in the right direction, that still leaves 15% of the toys in the United States at a higher risk of having high traces of lead on them, going undetected. Stores like Toys ‘R’ Us that sell toys sold by companies other than Mattel, should be required to post the percentage of how much lead is in each toy directly next to or near the toy so that parents can be aware of this problem. If parents are not made aware of this problem, it is going to cause more concerns health wise. Michelle Albert, a stay at home mom of two children states that “I feel our country should be more careful about the things we import” (Albert 1). She fears that her children may have been exposed to these toys and has no way of knowing until it may be too late.

Lead poisoning has been a concern for many years. In fact, because of the affects of lead poisoning, there has been an extensive decline in its use. "Many people believe lead poisoning is no longer a threat, yet millions of homes contain lead based paint" (Heck, J., 2005, para. 1). Exposure to lead at any level is unhealthy, especially in infants, children, and pregnant women and continues to be an ongoing dilemma in this country. I read two articles concerning lead poisoning; the first article is from FineTuning, a popular press and the second article is from Pediatrics, a peer-review journal. In this paper, I will clearly summarize each article by comparing the content of both articles. In addition, I will summarize the attention to

Due to outsourcing to other developing countries, the toy industry faced many hardships. The products that are made in developing countries that had substandard quality control were recalled many times due to the safety reasons. Mattel too faced a stiff pressure from the government and consumers for the products that were not safe and stable which are made in manufacturing facilities in China. Recently, Mattel recalled several of its products because they were not safe for consumers. Recalling millions of products, not only reduced the total revenues of the company, as well as it hurt the company’s image at the same time. Mattel had been always trusted by its consumers for making providing its consumers high-quality products and stable products.

The top nine toy makers starting from the ninth the least to the best number one. Coming in at number 9 is “Melissa and Doug”. Melissa and Doug is a company that produces educational toys and puzzles. The melissa and Doug company was formed in 1988 in a basement. However The company does not use electronic components, and instead focuses on traditional toy designs(therichest.com). Annual sale of toys with Melissa and Doug company is estimated 325 million a

Toy companies have the responsibility to offer the safest and appropriate toys to all the kids that could use them. By safe toys I mean that toy companies should support kids

Mattel has been criticized heavily for having to recall not once but thrice in 5 weeks 20 million toys manufactured in China with lead paint and/or loose, potentially dangerous magnets. Clearly Mattel does not have sufficiently tight quality control procedures in its supply chain to compensate for the extra risks of outsourcing to Chinese subcontractors and clearly there are design flaws in the toys with the magnets that could come loose. Although many observers give the company credit for responding to the crisis quickly with an apology from the CEO and pledges to institute more rigorous product safety checks, Mattel still faces a number of problems, including significant costs associated with the recalls and new

Additional risks can be in the production itself. Toys are in a very regulated industry and any defects in production that are not within the regulatory standards can be either recalled if they are already being sold to consumers or cause the entire production run to be discarded or destroyed. Both instances are very costly but taking the initiative to create a safe work environment that is compliant with all regulations can mitigate that risk.

The lead paint laced toys came from one of Mattel’s contracted factories in China called Lee Der. This company manufactures toys using products from subcontractors; one of these contractors was Hun Li Da, responsible for violating Mattel’s lead paint standards by using an uncertified paint supply. With Mattel recalling an ominous amount of toys shed light on the fact that many U.S. name brands that have manufacturing facilities overseas use contractors that provide materials that sometimes are not what they are supposed to be. While Mattel took the blame and relieved the contractors of any blame, Zhang Shuhong, the owner of Lee Der committed suicide just days after the Mattel recalls took place. Lee Der Industrial was in fact responsible for the toys that were coated in toxic lead

The United States has some of the strictest toy safety standards and regulations in the world. Any toy intended for use by children age 12 and under must be third party tested and certified with a Children’s Product Certificate (CPSC). However, not every section of the Children’s Product Certificate may apply to any given toy. The document is lengthy with a multitude of provisions. Each provision may not necessarily may to any given toy. For example, toys that don’t make and noise would not need to adhere to sound provisions. Although certain sections may be exempt, each applicable provision much be in compliance with the toy safety standard.

In 2007, the international toy manufacturer, Mattel, Inc. issued several recalls for millions of their products. These recalls were for safety reasons in that testing at the manufacturing sites and special test laboratories showed that millions of their toys were coated with dangerous amounts of lead in the paint. This lead based paint contains a potent neurotoxin that if ingested can cause serious harm to children. Mattel assured the public that the problem would be solved, the recalled products would be collected and replaced, and that the company would never let this type of incident happen again.

Others felt that they should consider Indonesia as a way to take advantage of low labor costs and very attractive exchange rates. Mattel currently operated a plant in Indonesia that produced Barbie® dolls. Montalto had to decide whether Mattel should go forward with the new China plant, build a plant in Malaysia or Indonesia, expand one of the existing facilities, or outsource the surplus die-cast volume through VOA. Company Background Based in California, Mattel, Inc designed, manufactured, and marketed a broad variety of toy products. The company’s core product lines included Barbie fashion dolls, Hot Wheels die- cast toy vehicles, Cabbage Patch Kids, Fisher-Price preschool toys, and Disney toys. Most of these toys were made overseas, primarily in southeast Asia. Mattel had wholly owned manufacturing facilities in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, and Italy. Mattel was founded in 1944 by Elliot and Ruth Handler. Neither Elliot nor Ruth had much business experience or capital, but they both had dreams. The post World War II demographics of a huge baby boom plus a virtually toyless marketplace provided a unique opportunity to gain a place in a growing toy market. Mattel’s first products, simple picture frames and doll house furniture, met with mixed success. The first really big hit was a music box. By partnering with another toy inventor, they developed a music box that could be

To please the public the industry also said they would conduct research about the effects of lead, but the research was funded by the lead industry so they skewed the presentation of the results to the public. Soon there were also cases reported of lead poisoning in children from their habit of biting lead-painted toys. This time the lead industry tried to distract the public by increasing their advertisements highlighting the benefits of lead using the mascot of the Dutch Boy Painter and slogans, such as “ethyl is to gasoline what vitamins are to food.” However, by the 1970’s with the introduction of safer elements and the decrease in public support, the lead industry lost its importance in the world.