Tag: toys

Dec. 8, 2022 – Sarah Combs, MD, has been an attending physician in the emergency department at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, for 6½ years.

She knows how dangerous toys can be. She has seen the damage they can do.

“Toy-related injury can mean children pick up a little marble and pop it in the ear canal, let’s say, or it can mean the more severe injuries, such as aspiration of uninflated balloons into the airway area, which unfortunately I have also seen,” Combs says.

That first-hand knowledge includes death.

“I won’t be too specific here for patient privacy reasons, but I can say that the case that really sticks with me, even though it was years ago now, involved a small child who aspirated [sucked from their mouth into their airway] an uninflated balloon. Absolutely tragic.”

The mother of two small children says it can sometimes be tough treating kids for toy-related injuries.

 “On the one hand, it can lead to increased empathy with the parents; on the other, it can be hard not to worry excessively. My 6-month-old is currently in the phase where literally anything and everything she can reach goes directly into her mouth,” Combs says.

Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog with the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, and author of the report, set out to determine the scope of the problem and see how many recalled toys were out there for consumers to buy.

 Murray bought them from eight merchants.

“We were absolutely shocked that it was so easy to buy recalled toys online,” she says.

“And the vast majority of the toys we purchased were new, new in the box or new with tags, not like used toys that you might get at a garage sale or something like that.”

She and her team bought more than 30 toys that had been recalled, even though it is illegal to sell recalled toys. Illegal, yes, but those toys are still not hard to get.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, every year, about 200,000 people end up in an emergency room because of a toy-related injury.While that number has dropped a bit over the last decade, it doesn’t include injuries not severe enough to require a trip to the ER.

Some posed a choking hazard due to small parts breaking off. Those were: 

• Disney Baby Winnie the Pooh Rattle Sets from Walgreens 
• Activity Loops by The Manhattan Toy Co.
• Early Learning Centre Little Senses Lights & Sounds Shape Sorter Toys by Addo Play 
• Forky 11” Plush Toys from Disney Pixar’s Toy Story 
• Kid O Hudson Glow Rattles by PlayMonster 

The other toys included: 

• DigitDots 3-millimeter and 5-millimeter Magnetic Balls by HD Premiere, which cause injuries to the digestive system if two or more are swallowed 
• Blue’s Clues Foot to Floor Ride-on Toys by Huffy Corp., which can tip forward and cause falls 
• Kidoozie Play Tents and Playhouses by Epoch Everlasting Play, which don’t meet industry flammability standards 
• Ubbi Connecting Bath Toys by Pearhead, which can cause cuts when pieces break off, creating a choking hazard

Online Marketplaces Raise Risks

Murray believes major online platforms like Facebook Marketplace and eBay need to better screen listings and not allow recalled toys to be sold on their sites.

Parents should make sure they understand all the toy’s features, including cameras, microphones, and data gathering.

“Not to say it’s necessarily a problem for a child to interact with a toy,” Murray says, “but the parents need to know what that toy can do and what information it’s gathering about your little kid and, more importantly, what it’s going to do … with that information.

“You don’t want information about your child ending up in some database in a foreign country.” 

Warning the Public and the Industry

Alexander Hoehn-Saric, chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, says they are focused on warning the public about unsafe products. He says in the last year, they’ve removed more than 40,000 dangerous products from e-commerce sites, including many of the recalled toys on this list.

“Always pay attention to age labeling and safety warnings on toys to make sure they are appropriate and safe for that child,” Hoehn-Saric says. “Think about everyone in the house in case the kid you’re buying the present for has a younger brother or sister.”

In August, Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed into law, a bill called Reese’s Law.It directs the Consumer Product Safety Commission to create safety standards for button cell, lithium coin, and other small batteries that can injure or kill children if swallowed. The bill was named after 17-month-old Reese Hamsmith, who died in 2020 after swallowing a button battery from a remote control. It burned a hole in her esophagus.

The law requires that these batteries have warning labels telling adults to keep them out of children’s reach; that battery compartments be made difficult to open by children 6 years old and under; and that battery packaging follow federal standards and be child-resistant.

Two years before the bill was even introduced, battery maker Duracell picked up the mantle and began coating three sizes of its popular button batteries to make them taste bitter, hoping to discourage kids from licking or swallowing them.

The bitter batteries are being lauded by Blumenthal, Murray, and Combs, who believe other battery makers should follow suit.

 Joan Lawrence, senior vice president of regulatory affairs at the Toy Association in New York, says toy safety is the top priority for the toy industry.

“Bringing safe and fun toys to children and families is what we work on year-round,” she says. “In the U.S., we have mandatory toy safety standards for all toys sold here, and all toys sold in the U.S. must comply with over 100 different safety standards.” 

Because of this, she says, toys in this country are among the safest consumer products in our homes. But with the increase of online shopping, Lawrence warns of counterfeit and knockoff products.

“We always say if a deal on a hot toy looks too good to be true, it probably is,” she says. “It’s probably better to buy the real thing or wait for a trusted retailer to restock the product than to buy a fake or cheaper alternative that has the potential to be unsafe.” 

“But the fact of the matter is things, anything can be sold, and the regulatory process ends up being more reactive than proactive, and so things get in the market and, you know, end up in people’s homes without any proof that they’re safe for kids,” he says. “That to me is especially scary and unfortunate.”

Hoffman wants people to understand what they may be getting into when they jump online to buy toys. He believes parents should be “very leery” of buying stuff on electronic marketplaces. Especially sites they don’t recognize.

“I think it’s one of the unfortunate consequences of e-marketplaces, is that it gives cover for unscrupulous people to make a buck at the significant expense of kids,” he says.

When a product is recalled, it’s because there’s identified risk associated with it. And unfortunately, he says, “we know that a lot of products that end up being recalled never get returned. They do end up in secondary marketplaces, and we used to see them in consignment stores and stuff like that. But now, with the electronic marketplaces, with web-based marketplaces that are nameless and faceless, it becomes even more complicated.”

Combs see this issue through the lens of stronger legislation.

“I certainly understand the struggle that parents and caregivers feel, as you want your children to explore and play but you also want them to do so safely,” she says. “It’s a balancing act – and a difficult one at that, which is why having some legislation and regulations in place is so important.”