The AP has discovered that China is replacing lead in a number of the pieces of jewelry that it makes for export with cadmium. Medical books say that the metal can cause irreversible liver and kidney damage. The AP analysis shows that “The most contaminated piece analyzed in lab testing contained a startling 91 percent cadmium by weight.”
The news is another example of how the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has failed American children and the parents who buy them their toys.
Mattel (NYSE:MAT) and Fisher-Price paid a very modest $2.3 million in civil penalties early last year for importing toys with excessive levels of lead paint. Most of the toys were sold in 2007. Congress criticized both the toy companies and the CPSC for lax compliance and enforcement of existing laws about metal content in children’s toys.
The CPSC and toy companies have been encouraged to send more inspectors to the Chinese factories that make toys for export to the US and press the People’s Republic to crack down on manufacturers that do not comply with safety rules. The CPSC and toy firms claim that they cannot police the hundreds of facilities that make the products.
Chinese companies continue to export toys to the US that they almost certainly know are dangerous. That will continue until the US government puts an embargo on the products and dispenses with the excuse that American toy companies cannot make inspections in China. There is no need to inspect what can’t be sold.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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