A toy manufacturer has agreed to pay a $200,000 fine for failing to report it was selling toys with dangerous amounts of lead.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission Schylling Associates knowingly imported thousands of toys that did not meet federal lead paint standards.
In fact the report says, “Although it eventually reported about these toys to CPSC in 2007, Schylling knew or should have known by 2002 that most of the toys did not comply with the lead paint ban, and it failed to report this information to the government in a timely manner.”
“Instead of notifying CPSC immediately, in 2002 Schylling conducted a unilateral recall of the distributed pails by seeking their return from affected retail business customers. Within weeks of being notified of each of these violations in 2007, CPSC announced the firm’s voluntary recall of the products first in August and for additional toys in November of that year.”
At the end of last year RC2 Corporation was fined more than a million dollars and Excelligence Learning $25,000 for also violating the lead paint standards for toys.
In each of these cases, attached to the settlement is a notice that says the companies “deny they knowingly violated federal law.”
The government leaves testing up to each manufacturer. It would be impossible for the government to test all of the products imported into this country each year. It is also up to each company to report customer complaints and test results to the government.
This is further proof that if you experience a problem with a product you should not only contact the company but report it to the proper government agency. Yesterday I put some helpful links to all of the agencies to which you can file a report.
