Posted on 08/14/2007 11:31:18 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Official: China knew about magnets
BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China knew about problems with magnets on toys as long ago as March, an industry official said on Wednesday, following a second massive recall of Chinese-made Mattel toys due to hazards from small, powerful magnets.
Mattel's Barbie and Tanner doll set is one of the products being recalled.
1 of 2 Mattel Inc. the largest U.S. toy company, recalled millions more Chinese-made toys on Tuesday due to hazards from the magnets and lead paint, and warned it may recall additional products as it steps up testing.
"We knew about the situation, because since March some toys had been recalled due to magnetic-parts problems," an official with the China Toy Association, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
She did not elaborate on why it had taken so long for something to be done.
The new recall involves about 18.2 million magnetic toys globally, including 9.5 million in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
From the story, there’s no indication she abused the toy to cause the failure but who knows.
I would suspect they wouldn’t be recalling if it had to be badly abused to fail. Anything can be destroyed with some effort...
Does anyone have a link to the story about the Chinese generals and elites discussing the overthrow of the US?
The magnets were specially programmed to turn kids into Communists.
I worked in product safety testing, specifically designing testing programs for McDonald Happy Meal toys.
The tests for toys intended for children under 3 years old are clear. There is a bite test, a drop test, flammability tests, pull tests, etc. If paints are used, you test for heavy metals in paints.
Lead happens in domestic paints as well. The allowable limit is very, very low.
McDonald’s has all its toys made in Asia for the last two decades. Statistical sampling and testing of the toys as they are being produced reveals any possible flaws before the toys leave the factory. The testing only takes a day or two.
It is clear to me that either Mattel did not randomly sample the toys properly to establish their safety or Mattel did not test the toys at all until they arrived in the United States.
Either way, Mattel took the cheap route and is now paying the price via their reputation.
McDonald’s was committed to never, ever having a Happy Meal Toy recalled for a clear safety defect.
Oh, one more thing. You need to have a brain to design the testing scheme.
Parts that can be bitten off or broken off should be tested as such. If someone fails to see a potential threat and does not test it, then a flaw will get through.
This may have happened with the magnet. Somebody thought the magnet was tablet-shaped and could be swallowed safely (like wheels from a toy car) and passed out the intestinal system. They failed to account for the possibility of two magnets being swallowed and attracting each other in the intestinal tract.
On the other hand, if the toy only has one magnet, it is probably not that big of a deal.
One might wonder if using such powerful small magnets in toys meant for young children is a good idea, really. I mean, there is always the chance of these things getting loose from whatever they’re embedded in, whether through normal use or misuse.
The CEO who wants TWO summer homes instead of just one makes huge campaign donations, that's how.
I admit I had to scroll up to see where that came from.
Where is Mattel in all of this? Don’t they design and set the requirements for the toys? Seems to me the manufacture was just doing that the client wanted. I think Mattel carries the lion share of the blame here.
How many companies will ruin their brand name by saving $$$ & moving manufacturing operations to China? Frankly, I don’t even think consumers are seeing the savings. More likely, the savings are passed along to the CEO and top executives in the form of compensation.
I make a point now to look for the origin on everything I buy. It’s not always easy, but I really try to avoid anything made in China. It’s bad enough that product quality has declined in the US over the last 20 years but you can pretty much count on receiving an inferior product once it moves offshore.
Wasn't lead paint banned in this country like 20 years ago? That's the problem when you're dealing with manufacturing sites like China -- they have a completely different set of standards then we do here. The Chinese want to make money as fast as they can using the least expensive raw materials. The workers are paid slave wages and the top executives are open to bribes. Hardly, the ideal set-up for any kind of quality control.
I agree with you. The news story I heard on the radio claimed that the chinese company followed the Mattel design specs.
Well, I'm closing in on sixty -- another couple years, if my body lasts, although I wouldn't bet good money on it :( and I can answer that question.
Back when we were kids, there was no such thing as a rare-earth magnet. A tiny neodynium magnet -- smaller than your fingernail -- will be several times stronger than a fairly large alnico magnet we grew up with.
A strong man will have difficulty separating two of them stuck to each other. In fact, they are usually chrome plated -- not for appearance, but to protect them. The protection is not perfect, though. If you allow two of them to snap together, they will collide with such force as to shatter them. The chrome will hopefully prevent the pieces from separating and shooting into your eye at incredible velocity. They are THAT powerful.
Two of them, in a child's small intestine, will very likely grab onto each other through two loops of the gut, crushing the thin intestinal tissue, cutting off blood flow completly resulting in necrosis, and, if not treated soon -- via surgery, death. A slow, painful death.
We'll just put it on your tab then. :)
May we now get back to discussing the benefits to American children’s health derived from chewing the lead based paint off toys made in Communist China?
I see no benefit to importing any toys from China.
I see no benefit from importing anything from the last remaining communist superpower, to whom, like fools, we have become a debtor nation, subject to their mercy, and they have none.
Their goal is to destroy us. Our goal seems to be to assist them in it, even to the point of financing it, and, making ourselves completely vulnerable to their tactics.
Fox News just did a story on Toys R Us vinyl baby bibs having lead paint too.
But, increasingly amusing. :)
Believe it.
Your hypothetical is rather open-ended.
If a toy is labeled "Happy Joy Toy! [for ages 1 - 4], and to all appearances is made of wood, or plastic, but, underneath the (lead) paint, it's made of cheap shatter-prone glass, you're gonna give the communist manufacturer a pass?
Now that's unbelievable.
turn one of the magnets 180 degrees, Einstein.
At 6-8 years old, I used to play with those things for hours.
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