American parents unwilling to trade $ for their children's safety

We all appreciate the value of lower-cost goods, but there is a limit to how much even American consumers will tolerate for the sake of a buck.

Some 967,000 [Mattel] toys - 83 types based on popular characters like Dora the Explorer and Big Bird and aimed at preschoolers - were recalled after it was discovered they contained lead paint.

A company official blamed the problem on the Chinese factory where the toys are made. Chinese companies make more than 70 percent of the toys sold in the United States.

"We require our manufacturing partners to use paint from approved and certified suppliers and have procedures in place to test and verify," Jim Walter, senior vice president of worldwide quality assurance, said. "But in this particular case, our procedures were not followed."

He vowed to get to the bottom of the mix-up, which will cost the company about $30 million, but New York parents aren't buying it.

Many parents were horrified that lead paint - long linked to health problems in kids, including brain damage - could find its way in American toys.

"To these companies, money is more important than our kids' health," said Anne Grace, a mother of three who was shopping at the Toys "R" Us in Times Square....

"This is in the news all the time," complained a father, Scott Holswade, 44.

He's right, said Don Mays, senior director of product-safety planning for Consumer Reports. "If they're going to outsource the manufacturing of their toys to a factory in China, they need to put in place a safety net," he said.

Mays said this is the 26th toy recall this year alone - all from China.

And it's the fourth recall within the past 12 months from either Fisher Price or their parent company Mattel.

"The vast majority of the toys sold in this country are made in China," Mays said.

"In many ways, they don't have the same safety regulations as us," he said.

For example, there are no rules prohibiting the use of lead paint in China, he said.

Why not?