Another Huge Recall Of Chinese-Made Toys

(CBS/AP)  More than a half-million Chinese-made products were recalled Thursday, including "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Baby Einstein toys, because they contain dangerous levels of lead.

Coin-shaped "Pirates of the Caribbean" flashlights and soft, textured Baby Einstein blocks were among the 544,000 products recalled, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced. The recall also includes Totally Me! Funky Room Decor Set decorating kits imported and sold by Toys "R" Us Inc. and a variety of wooden toys imported and sold by KB Toys Inc.

The flashlight's leather strap, the back of the decorating kit's mirror, the blue Baby Einstein block and the wooden toys have surface paint that contains high levels of lead, which 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.

CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese noted that the effects of lead are cumulative.

"A lot of what is being recalled is because it violates the law, not that there is an imminent health risk," she said.

The recall also included cups shaped like Frankenstein's head with high levels of lead in their surface paint. Other products not necessarily for children were: key chains containing high levels of lead, as well as bookmarks and journals with lead-tainted surface paint.

"There will be more recalls because of lead violations, but we also anticipate that we will begin to see fewer and fewer of them as a big portion of the marketplace will have been tested," Vallese said. "What you're seeing now is the result of a systematic approach to going through inventories."

Meanwhile, the repeated recalls have nervous parents wondering just which aisle in the toy department is safe, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes.

"It's been very frustrating and disappointing as a parent," said Robyn Ross.

The recalls include:

About 35,000 Baby Einstein Discover & Play Color Blocks, distributed by Kids II Inc. The blocks were sold around the country between June and September. For more information, or to arrange for a free replacement block, call 866-203-6788 or visit http://www.kidsii.com.

About 79,000 "Pirates of the Caribbean" medallion squeeze lights, imported by the Eveready Battery Co., a brand of Energizer Holdings, Inc. The flashlights were sold nationwide and online between September 2006 and October 2007. For more information, or to receive a voucher for another Eveready product, call 800-925-0628 or visit http://www.Energizer.com.

About 15,000 Totally Me! Funky Room Decor Sets, manufactured by Hong Kong-based CKI Toys and imported by Toys "R" Us Inc. The kits were sold at Toys "R" Us stores around the country and on the company's Web site between May and September 2007. Return the sets to any Toys "R" Us store in exchange for store credit. For more information, call 800-869-7787 or visit http://www.toysrus.com.

About 10,000 wooden Pull-Along Alphabet & Math Blocks wagons, Pull-Along Learning Blocks wagons, 10-in-1 Activity Learning Carts and Flip-Flop alphabet blocks, imported by KB Toys Inc. The toys were sold at KB Toys stores around the country between August 2005 and September 2007. Return the toys to any KB Toys store in exchange for store credit. For more information call 888-843-9520 or visit http://www.recall.kbtinfo.com.

About 63,000 green, plastic cups shaped like Frankenstein's head, imported by Dollar General Merchandising Inc. The cups were sold at Dollar general stores around the country in September. For a refund or replacement product, return the key chains to the place of purchase. For more information, call 800-678-9258 or visit http://www.dollargeneral.com.

About 192,000 key chains imported by Dollar General Merchandising Inc. The key chains feature a metal charm engraved with "wisdom," "truth," "believe," "love," "hope" or "dream." They were sold at Dollar General stores around the country between June 2005 and August 2007. For a refund or replacement product, return the key chains to the place of purchase. For more information, call 800-678-9258 or visit http://www.dollargeneral.com.

About 150,000 bookmarks and journals, imported by Antioch Publishing. The products feature a variety of decorations including breast cancer awareness and Winnie the Pooh. The bookmarks and journals were sold at book, card and gift stores around the country between March 2005 and October 2007. Some of the bookmarks were sold with bracelets. For more information, or to arrange for a refund, call 800-543-1515 or visit http://www.antioch.com.

[veevslav]

Chinese are just playing to corporate America, which through lobbying owns the Democrats and Republicans. Yes Bush and co hasn''t fixed the problems but it started with Clinton and Co. One note though at least bush hasn''t been selling Nuclear missile technology, but thats because he cant spell it or say it. Bottom line just try boycotting as many Chinese made products as possible.

[veevslav]

Chinese are just playing to corporate America, which through lobbying owns the Democrats and Republicans. Yes Bush and co hasn''t fixed the problems but it started with Clinton and Co. One note though at least bush hasn''t been selling Nuclear missile technology, but thats because he cant spell it or say it. Bottom line just try boycotting as many Chinese mad products as possible.

[name_verify]

Chinese are greedy and dangerous.

[lslp99]

check out www.discoverytoyslink.com/lslp99
Yes China makes alot of products we all buy; but here you can at least buy SAFE TOYS that are educational and fun (see the quality guarantee on the site)!
Don''t cancel Christmas yet :-)

[mcmilker]

This is most likely only the beginning. As we consumers demand cheaper and cheaper toys, more and more short cuts have resulted. These recalls have opened our eyes to this trend. This year many of us are cutting back and buying fewer, better made toys %u2013 wooden toys made in Europe (Haba, Ravensburger), costumes, American made open-ended toys with few small or breakable parts. There are lots of great, well made toys out there, online and at independent retailers. They just can%u2019t be found at the big box toy retailers%u2026yet.

The Not Quite Crunchy Parent

[antoniof123]

Hey Di ck and George I thought that you were supposed to protect us from the bad guys. Wait you can''t protect us from poison tooth paste or lead in the paint so I am supposed to believe that you can protect us from terrorist. Yea, would you like to buy a piece of land in the Florida Everglades. Worst administration in American history, and they think we will forget by November 2008, hey there were some true Republicans in this country left but not anymore we left the Republican party to the reactionary wing nut fascist fake Christians.

[mainttom]

Where does a person buy paint with a high lead level? If China is still using paint with lead, can you imagine what is being used on all the other products produced there.

The elves in Santa''s workshop stopped using paint with lead years ago.

[liberalme]

China has already apologized, I guess we forgave them because they''re still making toys.
As someone previously suggested, perhaps we should start by boycotting things made in China.

[sevenveils]

OK China, YOU owe the US a big appology for violating US laws regarding lead paint in toys and consumer items.

You know perfectly well what you''ve done, now give the US an apology

[liberalme]

Unfortunately, if are any monies to be mde up for this, I doubt very much it could be arranged by our illustrious government.

Our government is way in debt with China, China, on the other hand, has contracts with toy manufaturers primarily Mattel, based in California. I doubt if Mattel would ever consider relinquishing some of their losses to be paid to the government if China agreed to make up for the the losses.

Again, if we encouraged these companies to keep production here, we would, most likely, have safer products, it would provide Americans with jobs and justify the outrageous prices.