In 2008, Brian announced a new legislative initiative to crack down on dangerous toys. He was joined by Delegate Shannon Valentine from Lynchburg who is working with Brian on the legislation.
“As the father of two young children I know how important safe toys are to our families during this holiday season,” said Brian. “No parent should worry about their child going to the Emergency Room because of a toy they received Christmas morning.”
The new “Toy Safety Act” provides new protections from dangerous toys by directing the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Health to remove recalled toys from the shelves in Virginia and to consider the development of standards for toys here in the Commonwealth, mandates new regulations for our Child Daycare Council to keep dangerous toys away from kids, and creates a new civil penalty for stores that knowingly sell recalled toys in Virginia.
No Dangerous Toys News:
Official Press Release
WDJB-TV Roanoke
(video)
WVIR-TV Charlottesville
Raising Kaine
Washington Examiner
Richmond Times-Dispatch
- In a four-day investigation of toys it purchased at stores such as Target Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and The Disney Store, the Center for Environmental Health found that 9 out of the 100 toys it purchased had high lead levels of 900 parts per million or more.
- Mattel Inc. recalled more than 21 million Chinese-made toys on fears they were tainted with lead paint and tiny magnets that children could accidentally swallow. Mattel’s own tests on the toys found that they had lead levels up to 200 times the accepted limit.
- 17 percent of the children’s products tested had levels of lead above the 600 parts per million federal standard that would trigger a recall of lead paint. Jewelry products were the most likely to contain the high levels of lead, the center said, with 33.5 percent containing levels above 600 ppm (Ecology Center)
- Last year, 73,000 kids went to the Emergency Room because of toy-related injuries. There are more than 9 million toys under recall worldwide from major manufacturers today. (CPSC)
- A recent report released by the Washington Toxic Coalition found that an unacceptable number of children’s toys are contaminated with lead, mercury, and cadmium at levels that are dangerously high.
