Toy Safety: 2007 WATCH list

Here is the list of the toys not to buy, as compiled by the nonprofit group World Against Toys Causing Harm Inc., or WATCH.

There are retailers out there still selling them, although some of them were recalled. Example being Go Diego Go- Animal Rescue Boat, which I am pretty sure have seen a few days ago at London Drugs.

The top 10 toys on the 2007 WATCH list along with the companies that make them:

1. Aqua Dots or Bindeez, Spinmaster. Contains GHB, lead ?

2. Go Diego Go Animal Rescue Boat, by Fisher Price. Contains lead paint.

3. Sticky Stones, GeoCentral. Magnetized stones that, if swallowed, could “stick together across the intestines, causing serious infections and death.”

4. Jack Sparrow’s Spinning Dagger, Zizzle. Viewed as eye hazard.

5. Dora the Explorer Lamp, Funhouse. Potential for electric shocks and burns.

6. Lil “Giddy Up” Horse – Sassy Pet Saks, Douglas. Contain fibers and small parts that could be a choking hazard.

7. Spider Man 3 New Goblin Sword, Hasbro. Rigid plastic could cause injuries.

8. Hip Hoppa, by Spin Master Ltd. and Vivid Imaginations, Ltd. A combination footboard and bouncing ball that children jump on has the potential for head and other injuries.

9. B’Loonies Party Pack, Ja-Ru, Inc. Children blow balloon-like toy out of substance squeezed from tube. Has potential for chemical ingestion.

10. My Little Baby Born, Entertainment, Inc.; Zapf Creations AG. Baby doll comes attached to tiny pacifier that could be swallowed.

Lil “Giddy Up” has been defended by the company as not being harmful, but rather having a wrong label, that has been fixed in the mean time.
The article follows:

BUSINESS NEWS UPDATES
UPDATED
Thursday, 8:37 AM
From the Boston Globe Business Team
Company: Our item doesn’t belong on worst toy list
November 14, 07 02:56 PM
A toy company today disputed the inclusion of one of its products on a list of the year’s “10 worst toys” as compiled by the nonprofit group World Against Toys Causing Harm Inc., or WATCH.
A story in today’s Globe reported that the group included on its list the “Lil’ Giddy-Up Sak with Horse” from Douglas Co. of Keene, N.H.

The toy is a miniature plush-toy horse that comes in a purse.
In an e-mail to the Globe, Douglas president Scott Clarke wrote that Lil’ Giddy-Up Sak should not be on any list that includes recalled toys because his product has been tested many times and the horse and purse meet and exceed government standards.
But Clarke added, “We agree with the comment from WATCH that this item should be more clearly labeled, and we will make the horse age grade match the age grade of the purse.”
The horse is labeled that it’s age appropriate for “birth and up,” and the purse is labeled as appropriate for “18 months and up,” said Clarke, who added the labels would be modified to both read that they’re appropriate for “18 months and up.”

WATCH director James A. Swartz said that the purpose of the top 10 list is not to catalog toys that are recalled but to cite examples of the types of potential hazards that parents could find in toys on store shelves.
As for Lil’ Giddy-Up Sak, Swartz said that the purse features a wooden bead that could get detached during play; according to Swartz, the bead is small enough to pose a choking hazard and shouldn’t be included in a toy “marketed for babies.”
Told that Douglas was planning a label change, Swartz replied, “That’s a good start.”
Clarke noted that the bead on the Lil’ Giddy-Up Sak is securely fastened.
“It does not detach with play,” he said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)