Product Recall Vigilance

The recent spate of toy recalls is indicative of lax quality control at some manufacturers of products for children.  There are many product recalls every month, many of which go underpublicized. Product recalls are published by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and by manufacturers, but these notices may go unseen by most consumers. It falls to parents to be proactive in determining if they have purchased baby products which have been recalled or are defective. A good place to start is www.recalls.gov which lists recent recalls of all consumer products.  You can report an unsafe product at www.cpsc.gov and they will investigate.

No Cough Medicine for Kids under 2

The FDA on Wednesday warned parents never to give cough and cold medications to children under age 2 unless instructed to do so by a doctor.  The medications have been blamed for hundreds of injuries and a handful of deaths in children under age 2.  Many parents ignore the labels warning against this.

Cold medicines in high doses can affect the heart, and lead to arrhythmia’s.  Some  medicines have been associated with high blood pressure and strokes. In rare cases children have been injured when given recommended doses. Some of the injuries and deaths resulted when parents gave two different products to their child, not realizing that both contained identical medicines, resulting in an overdose.

Mattel Toy Recall

Mattel announced recalls Tuesday for 9 million more Chinese-made toys, including popular Barbie, Polly Pocket and “Cars” movie items, and warned that more could be ordered off store shelves because of lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed.

The recalls came nearly two weeks after Mattel Inc., the nation’s largest toy-maker, recalled 1.5 million Fisher-Price infant toys worldwide, which were also made in China, because of possible lead-paint hazards for children.

The government warned parents to make sure children are not playing with any of the recalled toys.

Nancy A. Nord, acting Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman, said no injuries had been reported with any of the products involved in Tuesday’s recalls. She said the recalls were intentionally broad to prevent injuries.

Several injuries had been reported in an earlier Polly Pocket recall last November. At least one U.S. child has died and 19 others have needed surgery since 2003 after swallowing magnets used in toys, the government said.

The recall announced Tuesday include about 9.3 million play sets that contain small, powerful magnets. Among the toys are Polly Pocket dolls and Barbie and Tanner play sets, along with Batman and OnePiece Triple Slash Zolo Roronoa action figures, and Doggie Day Care. Many of the magnetic toys are older and may have been purchased as early as 2003.

Also recalled Tuesday were 253,000 of Mattel’s die-cast cars modeled after “Sarge” in the cartoon movie “Cars” that contain lead paint.

On Aug. 2, Mattel recalled about 1.5 million Chinese-made Fisher-Price toys — including characters such as Dora the Explorer, Big Bird and Elmo — that contain lead paint. In June, about 1.5 million Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys, imported from China and distributed by the RC2 Corp. were recalled because of lead paint.

Lead is toxic if ingested by young children. Under current regulations, children’s products found to have more than .06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which negotiated details of Mattel’s recalls, reported that in the previous recall of Polly Pocket play sets Nov. 21, 2006, three children had been injured by swallowing more than one magnet. All three suffered intestinal perforations that required surgery.

When more than one magnet is swallowed, they can attach to each other and cause intestinal perforation, infection or blockage, which can be fatal.

In March 2006, another toy company, Mega Brands Inc., recalled 3.8 million Magnetix magnetic building sets after one child died and four others were seriously injured after swallowing tiny magnets in them.