No Toys from China

Patrick is blessed to have wonderful grandparents and godparents who love him and give him toys. I hate to do this but I have to. There is too much evidence to suggest that more and more toys from China are going to be recalled for toxicity. What gets me going is that we may have toys or bibs in this house which have toxic chemicals but just haven't been tested. So, I just cannot let Patrick play with anything from China. For our part, Jesse and I are going to read labels very carefully from now on and only buy him toys made here (hey, it's better for our economy anyway) or in Western Europe. It turns out that even Barbie has lead paint. Also, I thought that the smooth plastic toys were immune until I saw some Sesame Street toys recalled. They are just like some of the smooth plastic toys Patrick has and loves but we just can't take the risk. There are too many people/companies in former communist countries (and current ones like China) who do not give a flying flip about other people and/or don't know the risk their lack of regulations pose when it comes to toys or prescription medications or dog food.

Don't know what I am going to do about Patrick being in day care. They already think I am crazy.

Here are just a few links I picked up today about toxic toys:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/30/news/companies/crayon_recall/index.htm?postversion=2007083010

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/05/news/companies/mattel_recall/index.htm?cnn=yes

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/14/news/companies/china_recalls/index.htm?postversion=2007081413

For information about toxicity in plastic toys go here:

http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/consumerism/toxic_toy_story.html

Thought lead paint was only on wooden toys? Wrong!! Those smooth plastic toys have levels of lead, too, and little ones put their mouths on them.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/13/china.toymaker.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories