Official: China knew about magnets

CNN ^ | 08/14/07

[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.

[#1CTYankee]

"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."

Where I work some products have been moved to China because the patent's expired, competitors copied them, uotsourced thwm to China and undercut us substantially in price.

I took years to find a source that could meet our specifications and pass inspection, every lot delivered is inspected using a sample plan, if any failures are found we go through everything 100%

Quality isn't something to expect from China, nor is consistency.

Oh and we barly make anything on these products now.

[New Girl]

Good point. The Chinese are masters at copying but the quality isn’t the same. I saw something recently on one the news mag shows where the Chinese are now reproducing Venetian glass. Of course, it isn’t the same but from close-up, you can’t really tell the difference.

[from occupied ga]

children should not have small parts that come off.

I think that was taken out of context.

[from occupied ga]

O?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?

I see I've triggered the rabid ridiculous absurd response strawman brigade. Please give me an example of such a toy.

[from occupied ga]

Now tell us how you feel about the communists putting poison into pet and human food -- and then covering it up

Like U.S. manufacturers never poison people. Just here in ga a peanut butter plant was closed for a month due to botulism contamination. made several people rather ill. My response to your obnoxious statement rhymes with duck stew.

Point of curiosity: Do you happen to have any personal stake in "the China trade", i.e., as someone who owns or is employed by a company importing from China, or, associated with a "post-for-hire" service that represents clients with "China trade", or, as a stockholder in a company that derives significant revenue from "the China trade", etc?

nope

Point of curiosity: are you always this much of a jerk?

[sam_paine]

Every time I have ever shoved a magnet toward another magnet, the other magnet was repelled. Every time I have shoved a magnet toward a ordinary piece of metal they were forcefully attracted to each other. Those are the facts that I have witnessed.

If ever there were a classic example of an incorrect conclusion drawn from flawed experimental data!

I suppose you had a 50% chance of observing this on any given such 'experiment' getting N-N or S-S orientation! Your sample size wuz 2 small!

F.J.... Are you a climate scientist by any chance?

[DB]

I suggested that he needed to play with more magnets for the obvious reasons... I meant it literally. He took it as an insult and got nasty...

[F.J. Mitchell]

Thank you.

[sam_paine]

Hey! I take that as an insult!

Whatever it was! Jerk!

;P

(FR is not for the faint of heart anymore, indeed!)

[DB]

That would seem to be a major disaster for the company. One that if it really is a years worth of production would seem hard to survive.

[F.J. Mitchell]

LOL! No. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[F.J. Mitchell]

I apologize Mr Wizard for disturbing his eternal rest.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Alright TChris, if it makes me less an ass and more an adult to do as you say, here goes: “ TChris was wrong.”

All kidding aside, I do apologize DB, I was wrong.

I don’t know how I forgot the time that I was playing with a couple of very powerful magnets and dang near got my fingers crushed.

[DB]

I accept.

Thank you.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Thank you for accepting my apology.

[LilAngel]

North poles repel north poles. South poles repel south poles.
Opposite poles are attracted to each other.

[LilAngel]

I’ve heard that procedure also works with nails that have the head on the wrong end.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Thanks for the info LilAngel.

[LilAngel]

You’re welcome. If you ever need to know anything, just ask me. I know everything there is to know about everything.

; )

And if I don’t know, I can usually make up something fairly convincing.

[Don Joe]

Please give me an example of such a toy.

Right after YOU show ME an example of "So if a kid eats a smooth piece of glass and it breaks in the kid's innards" AND, someone suing "the company that made the glass."

Here's the way it works, luvverboy: if YOU can inject a hypothetical, and then tear it down, then YOU have established the propriety of -- at the very LEAST -- using a hypothetical.

For YOU to accuse ME of erecting a strawman, oh boy, now that's rich.