U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall on a product called DesignWare Confetti Bursts because the surface paint on the confetti package contained excessive levels of lead.
The recalled products contain confetti in plastic bags. When the bags are inflated, consumers squeeze the bag and confetti bursts out. Each package contains six confetti bursts.
The product was made in China and it was sold at discount, toy, drug, grocery, party, and specialty/gift stores nationwide from December 2003 through September 2007 for about $3.
The United Steelworkers is trying to bring attention to the lead situation with its Get The Lead Out (Stop Toxic Imports) .
Part of the campaign is to provide information and simple lead-testing kits at their website.
The kit contains two Lead Check swabs, a test verification sheet, reporting forms, manufacturer’s directions, MSDS data sheet, information on recent recalls and a tip sheet about what you can do to help stop toxic imports
The screening kits are free of charge, up to ten kits. You have to pay only shipping and handling of $3 for each of them.
And if the lead scare was not enough, something else showed its ugly head: asbestos, known to cause tumors in the lining of the abdomen or chest (mesothelioma).
CBC reported yesterday “test results from three different U.S. laboratories showing that dusting powder in the popular CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit – labeled for use by children aged 10 and up – contains five per cent tremolite asbestos, a particularly virulent form of the mineral”
CSI Fingerprint Kit is sold in Canada for $20-$30.
The kit is licensed by CBS, which produces the popular crime-science television show. CBS Consumer Products said this week that it has asked its licensee to commission an independent asbestos test.
“If the toy is determined to be unsafe, then we will insist that the licensee remove it from the market,” a CBS spokesman said in a statement.
New York-based Planet Toys Worldwide was quoted as saying the firm frequently inspects its plants in China that make the CSI toys.
A spokeswoman said the CSI kit meets all U.S. safety standards, but noted that U.S. agencies “don’t require asbestos testing and therefore we have never been appraised of any unacceptable levels of asbestos.”
So far the toy has not been removed from many retailers websites in Canada and the US.
According to the California-based Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, asbestos was also found in the Art Skills Clay Bucket and Ja-Ru Toy Clay.
The most disgusting and scary thing is that “new regulations under Canada’s Hazardous Materials Act allow asbestos-laden products “used by a child in education or play.” (NDP MP Pat Martin)
Are the Canadians legislators out of their freaking minds? I guess the big lobby money they got from various unscrupulous guys made them think with their asses.