Playing It Safe
Concerned Parents Can Test Toys in the Store

By Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 17, 2007

You might have thought after this year's string of high-profile recalls that there wouldn't be many dangerous toys left on store shelves. But safety consultant Alison Cassady still managed to spend about $700 during her annual shopping expedition for unsafe toys.

Recalls, after all, have their limitations. While they help ensure that fewer children are hurt by dangerous toys, they alert the public to hazards only after the toys have been sold and have made their way into homes.

So what's a shopper to do?

For starters, don't despair. Despite the record number of toy recalls this year, the vast majority of toys are safe.

"Sometimes I'm walking for hours and am not finding anything, but I tell myself that's a good thing," said Cassady, who helps compile the annual "Trouble in Toyland" report for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. This year's report is scheduled to be released Tuesday.

The recent recalls of toys containing lead and small powerful magnets have made a difference. Cassady said she had a harder time this year finding toys with those hazards.

Shoppers who want reassurance can adopt Cassady's technique of testing toys right in the store. For three weeks this fall, she scoured the shelves of Washington area toy retailers, armed with a lead-test kit, a choke-test cylinder and a sound meter. (Lead-test kits and choke-test cylinders can be purchased online. Sound meters can be bought at stores such as Radio Shack.)

Here are some of the hazards she looked for:

Small Parts

Small pieces that children can choke on remain one of the biggest toy hazards. Toys made for children younger than 3 are banned from containing small parts. And toys for 3- to 6-year-olds that have small parts are required by federal law to carry a warning label that reads: "Choking hazard. Small parts. Not for children under 3 years." But Cassady found toys that should have had a label and did not. She found others that had labels that were hard to read because of small print or different wording.

A toy with small parts should have a statutory warning "and not something the company made up itself," Cassady said.

Shoppers can check to see whether pieces fit in a choke-test cylinder, which is a clear plastic tube about 1 1/4 inches wide and with a slanted bottom with a space about 1 to 2 1/4 inches deep. It costs about $3.

Cassady also used her hands, trying to pry the tiny arm off a figurine, yanking on toy-car wheels and breaking her nails pulling on plastic flowers in a safari play set. If she couldn't pull them off, she said, neither could a child. Of course, there is a major pitfall to this approach: If you break it, you buy it.

This year, Cassady paid special attention to toy tools and anything cork-shaped because of the September 2006 recall of the Playskool Team Talkin' Tool Bench. Two toddlers died after choking on two oversize toy screws, which met federal safety standards for small parts.

Cassady also kept a lookout for dolls with accessories such as toy pacifiers. Small children can easily mistake such accessories for the real thing.

Lead

At Toys R Us in Baileys Crossroads last month, Cassady made a beeline for a Sweet Dreams Curious George doll sitting on a low shelf. She had heard that a similar doll had tested positive for lead. She pulled out a tube from her purse -- a lead-test kit she had bought online -- and rubbed it on the doll's face. The tip turned bright purple -- a positive result. The doll turned out to be one of several Curious George toys that Marvel Toys later recalled for high levels of lead.

To swab toys at the store, Cassady relied on LeadCheck test kits. (An 8-swab kit costs $18.45 online.) Safety experts are split over how useful such tests are. The Consumer Product Safety Commission last month said most home lead-test kits aren't reliable, while Consumer Reports said several brands, including LeadCheck, were "limited but useful" tools for detecting surface lead only.

Charles Margulis of the Center for Environmental Health, an Oakland, Calif., group that found lead in a Curious George doll, said consumers should consider using home lead tests as a rough screening tool. And they should look beyond lead paint. As with the Curious George doll, vinyl and other soft plastics can also have high levels of the toxic metal. U.S. PIRG recommended that parents try to avoid buying soft plastic toys altogether. If they must buy plastic, Margulis said, parents should stick with hard plastic.

Metal jewelry is another potential source of lead. A 4-year-old Minnesota boy died last year after swallowing a heart-shaped charm that was later found to be 99 percent lead. Margulis recommended that parents avoid giving metal jewelry to children, especially anything with a charm that may come off.

Magnets

Small, powerful rare-earth magnets have become popular, turning up in building sets, jewelry and even a Barbie pet pooper scooper. They also prompted many of the recent toy recalls because once swallowed, they can tear or block internal organs and even cause death. When Cassady came across a toy with magnets, she checked to see whether the magnets could fall out. Consumers should also make sure any components containing magnets aren't small enough to be swallowed by trying to put them in a choke-test cylinder or, if they don't have one, an empty toilet paper roll.

To help protect children's ears from loud noises, a sound meter can be used to check decibel levels.

If consumers find a hazard, they can call the Consumer Product Safety Commission hotline, 800-638-CPSC. They can sign up on the CPSC Web site, http://www.cpsc.gov, to receive recall notices, and the site can be searched for past recalls.

Occasionally, there are hazards that even the most diligent consumer could never foresee. For example, an industrial chemical that caused several children in the United States and Australia to lose consciousness and forced the recall of craft toy Aqua Dots earlier this month was used by a subcontractor in place of a non-toxic glue. There's "absolutely nothing" consumers could have done to anticipate that hazard, said Don Mays, Consumer Reports senior director of product safety.

Such cases are rare. But if you're sufficiently spooked, there are alternatives.

Though Aqua Dots made the Christmas list of one of his two daughters, Mays said, "Maybe I'll get them that puppy they wanted."