Urgent Call For Recall Of Halloween Toys

(CBS)  A professor and his assistants at Ashland University in Ohio routinely test toys -- in their spare time -- for unsafe levels of lead. Some of the information Dr. Jeffrey Weidenhammer has provided to the Consumer Product Safety Commission has resulted in recalls, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.

Now, says Sreenivasan, Weidenhammer and his team have found what they say are dangerous amounts of lead in some toys meant for kids to use on Halloween -- and they hope the CPSC issues speedy recalls before the holiday on Wednesday.

One toy in focus is called "ugly teeth." Besides being ugly, the fake plastic teeth have what the researchers say is 100 times the allowable levels of lead in the paint.

The teeth are just one of dozens of Halloween toys Weidenhammer and his team tested.

They say they also found high lead levels in some Halloween baskets, but they say the plastic teeth are of greatest concern because lead enters the system fastest when ingested.

On Thursday, the CPSC issued a recall of Halloween pails that children might use to carry their treats in, based partly on tests the professor and his lab had done.

They say they also found high levels in a Frankenstein cup and white skull bucket, but never received an explanation about why those two items weren't recalled.

In a statement to CBS News, the CPSC would only say it "welcomes information from a variety of sources that may assist us in our investigation."

Acting CPSC Chairman Nancy Nord recently complained to Congress about the agency's lack of resources, and confirmed that the commission only has one person who tests toys.

It usually takes the CPSC a few days to run its own tests or investigate complaints but, Sreenivasan says, considering how the toys Weidenhammer is worried about could be in the hands and mouths of children Wednesday, Weidenhammer hopes his warning becomes the CPSC's top priority.

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Sreenivasan filed a blog entry about Weidenhammer:

Jeffrey Weidenhammer comes across as a mild-mannered, matter-of-fact chemistry professor from Ashland University in Ohio, but get him started on the amount of lead in products on store shelves today, and you'll begin to hear a combination of the urgency, disappointment and frustration in his measured voice.

On top of the courses he teaches, he has been cajoling grad students and volunteers to come in on Saturdays and help him test for high levels of lead in the trinkets, metal jewelry and plastic toys that he finds all too readily available in the cheapest discount stores around him.

His sadness flows from the fact that his ad-hoc group is perhaps able to spend more time testing all these products than the Consumer Products Safety Commission -- an agency which has been complaining to Congress about its antiquated facilities, limited resources, low levels of staffing and inability to nab every dangerous product landing on U.S. shores.

The past few months have shined a harsh light on products from China and the amount of lead in the paint covering toys, paint that could slowly be ingested by the children playing with them and that could eventually lead to serious health problems or, in rare cases, death. Wiedenhammer and his team haven't chosen to focus on products from China, but most of the products available at the stores that sell the cheapest goods ("dollar stores," etc.) are from there. He has been looking at products that would most likely find their way into the hands and mouths of children.

Wiedenhammer's disappointment and frustration spring from what he says is the lack of "any explanation" for why some of his research is acknowledged with a recall and some is not. For example, a few weeks ago, he sent in a complaint with detailed lab results on a three different Halloween products: a witch pail, a skull bucket, and a Frankenstein cup. All had high levels of lead in the paint, but only the witch pail was recalled.

Now, two days before Halloween, he has filed another complaint with the CPSC, and this time his focus has been the test results of three products after looking at almost three dozen different Halloween-themed toys. The ugly teeth -- fake plastic fangs children may place in their mouths -- are his greatest concern, because lead is ingested through the mouth much more quickly than through the skin. He also identifies two different types of Halloween baskets that have lead levels far higher than allowable.

Perhaps this is inevitabile when you combine a bureaucracy that says it is overwhelmed in regulating the safety of all imports, a consumer who is addicted to falling prices at seemingly all costs, and a public that votes with its dollars and ballots to maintain the status quo.

[spazbeck06]

I find it crazy that we continue to put our kids at risk! If you do any kind of research you will find lead deaths still continue and that Learning Disabilities as well as ADD & ADHD (all contributed to lead) are on the rise. Who can you turn to? I have had a very hard time finding things that are not made in the USA or atleast not in China. My daughter has been affected for she is a kid who puts everything in her mouth and we have had fake teeth for years. I am just crazy feeling like my daughter can not have anything because it will harm her.

PLEASE STOP BUYING PRODUCTS MADE FROM CHINA! IF WE ALL BAN TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE A STATEMENT TO THESE COMPANIES CONTRIBUTING TO HARMING OUR CHILDREN!

[grammawhamma]

I have one of the frankenstein cups and my children have been using it. I called the doctor and was told that it needed to be on the recall list for my kids to get tested. What should I do?


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Posted by tutkill at 11:15 AM : Oct 29, 2007

Geez..just throw the cup away. Do your kids show any signs of lead poisoning? Did you look up the symptoms of lead poisoning? If they have the symptoms insist on the test...if not, don''t put them thru needless tests.

[appetite88]

WHY IS THERE NO MENTION OF THE COMPANIES THAT IMPORT OR SELL THESE TOYS IN THIS ARTICLE??????

[blackrose1978]

I have one of the frankenstein cups and my children have been using it. I called the doctor and was told that it needed to be on the recall list for my kids to get tested. What should I do?


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Posted by tutkill at 11:15 AM : Oct 29, 2007
I would go to anouther doctor if yours won''t test your kids. Who cares if the item is on a recall list or not. You have a concern for your childrens safty that should be all that matters.

[grammawhamma]

When shopping it takes forever to find where on a product the small print says made in China etc. It would make it much easier if it was a requirement to also include a picture of the flag of the country the product was made in.

[erasmus6]

"Americans used to look for the "Made in the USA" labels " posted by njstusfitor

It no longer matters whether anything says "Made in the USA". The ingrients or parts that make up something may not come from the USA. They can bring in the parts from China or wherever and as long as it is "assembled" in the U.S. they can say "Made in the U.S."

[njstusfiter]

When the United States imports food, toys, grain, clothing and nearly everything else instead of producing and manufacturing everything possible in this country, it is no wonder we have poisons and low-quality items for sale in every store in this country. Americans used to look for the "Made in the USA" labels and were not content to purchase imported items except for the few that we could not grow here. When we lost the determination and pride in this country, it''s workers and it''s products we began to decline. Our country is losing, losing, losing...and it is our fault!!!

Whatever happened the "land of the free and the home of the brave"? Now it is the land of imports,less jobs, lower quality and home of the cowardly.

[erasmus6]

Also there is our Vitamin C. The only place that makes Vitamin C outside of China is Scotland. And they aren''t big enough to suppy the whole world.

The reason our countries get stuff from China is because WE want everything for CHEAP. We pay them very little and so therefore they have to MAKE EVERYTHING CHEAP. So basically this is all our fault, because we are too CHEAP!!

Okay, I think I am finished my rant now.:) Well, I could go on,but I won''t.

[erasmus6]

As far as food and stuff goes, I am going to start phoning General Mills, Kelloggs, the Colgate toothpaste company etc. and ask them where the ingredients come from. If they can''t tell me, then I will be telling them I will no longer use their products. A lot of products have email addresses and phone numbers on them.

Oh and on WFive, they sent people over to see the plants and stuff where our food comes from and they had cameras. They showed them getting fish out of this thing that was full of water and it had frothy foam with brown sludge in the water. Then the camera moved over to the land and you could see someone spraying their crops with pesticides. Also where they made noodles and hung them out, they said that when you looked down you could see sewage coming out of a pipe onto to ground.

It will be hard to stop our countries from bringing in stuff from China. The first thing to do is to get a law passed that ALL ingredients be listed on food and what country it comes from.

[erasmus6]

The other night I watched a show called WFive. It was about our food and ingredients that come from China. In Canada we have a problem and in the U.S. it is an even bigger problem.

They were saying that the fish has malachite?? green in them, which is cancer causing. The ones they showed were the frozen shrimp, prawns etc. that were in boxes. This stuff is banned in Canada and China knows this. The authorities here say they pull something out of every unit and test it, but obviously that isn''t working too well.

Also they phoned General Mills (cereal) and Kelloggs. What they found out is of course that even though they say PRODUCT OF CANADA OR U.S., some ingredients do probably come from China. General Mills couldn''t tell them where the ingredients come from. I think Kelloggs said that they had ingredients from China but were going to be stating which ones were.

The point is that we need to consider EVERYTHING has ingredients from China.