Half a million toys recalled by U.S.
The Chinese-made products are included in five separate lead-paint recalls announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Many of the items were made exclusively for Target and Jo-Ann Fabrics.
Federal regulators recalled a half-million toys today because of lead paint -- including 200,000 Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway Toys from RC2 Corp., the company that began this year's wave of lead scares with a June recall of 1.5 million trains.
The five separate lead-paint recalls of Chinese-made toys included hundreds of thousands of products made exclusively for two retailers -- Target Corp. and Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts. Lead paint also caused problems for playthings manufactured abroad by two companies that sell to a wide variety of stores.
Target warned about excessive lead in paint on about 350,000 of its brightly colored Happy Giddy Gardening Tools and Children's Sunny Patch Chairs
Jo-Ann Stores Inc. recalled 16,000 toy rakes because lead in the paint on the rake handles violates federal lead standards.
Toymaker Guidecraft Inc. announced the recall of 10,000 Floor Puppet Theaters because surface paints on the 52-inch toy stage also contain excessive lead.
And RC2 recalled the five train toys as well as 800 toys from its "Knights of the Sword" series, because three kinds of those action figures also showed higher-than-allowed lead content.
No injuries have been reported in connection with any of the products recalled today, federal officials said.
So far this year, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled nearly 10.9 million toys, baby bibs and play jewelry because of excessive lead.
Industry leader Mattel Inc. and its Fisher-Price infant and preschool brand increased consumer anxiety about the safety of Chinese-made toys with its own series of recalls beginning in August.
The El Segundo-based company has since recalled 2.2 million toy cars, trains, Sesame Street shape sorters and Barbie accessories because of lead paint. The company's bigger recall, of more than 17 million magnet toys, was due to a design flaw, not production problems in China, the company has said.
Lead paint has been banned in the United States since 1978 because of lead's link to brain and neurological problems, particularly in children's still-developing systems.
Today's recall includes five Thomas and Friends toys from RC2: an all-black cargo car, the "Toad" vehicle, the olive green "Sodor" cargo box, an all-green maple tree top and signal base accessories.
RC2 also is recalling 800 "Knights of the Sword" toys, including three silver knights on red horses: one with an ax, one holding a weapon overhead with both hands and one with a yellow lance.
Pictures of the recalled toys and information about returning them is at
www.cpsc.gov.
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