Lead paint in toys still a problem today

Thomas The Tank Engine toys affected by recalls.

The recent recalls of some Thomas the Tank Engine toys have spotlighted the problem of lead paint in kids' toys. Says NPR:

The Oak Brook, Ill.-based toy company RC2 last week issued a voluntary recall of some 1.5 million "Thomas and Friends" wooden toys because the factory in China that the company contracts with to manufacture the toys used lead in some of the red and yellow paints coating the toys between January 2005 and April 2007.

That upsets Heather Davern because she says her kids play with these toys constantly.

James was just tested for lead in March as part of a preschool screening and the results came back normal. Addie has been tested before and will be tested again this summer before entering kindergarten, but even good results don't quell Davern's concerns.

"You think that when you're buying a high-end toy like a Thomas the Tank Engine train, that you're getting something that has gone through all the proper channels to make sure it's a safe toy," she says.

Most Americans think of lead paint poisoning from toys as a relic of another age (when we all had metal toys!) but the Consumer Product Safety Commission is concerned:

Davern calls it archaic to have to worry about lead paint in toys nowadays, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission says that is just one of several problems tied to the booming increase of manufactured products coming into the United States from China.

"So far in 2007, 60 percent of the recalls we have conducted are of products made in China," says CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson. "So far in 2007, we have done 24 recalls of toys; all of those products have been made in China."