Buyers beware
of unsafe toys
■A PIRG report warns against
hazardous toys, including this
year’s hot item, the Razor
By Lisa Toth
Oregon Daily Emerald
As parents head into the hustle
and bustle of holiday shopping,
they may not be aware the Razor, a
popular aluminum scooter on
many children’s wish lists, is con
sidered a hazardous toy.
The national Public Interest Re
search Group released the 15th-an
nual “Trouble in Toyland” report
detailing 34 dangerous toys on the
market this holiday season.
OSPIRG, the Oregon student
chapter of PIRG, held a press con
ference Nov. 21 at the Spencer View
Family House to alert parents and
children to the dangerous toys
available to consumers.
At the press conference, OSPIRG
Campus Organizer Jessica Smetana
said use of the Razor has resulted in
more than 9,400 injuries since it hit
the market a year ago.
“There isn’t a structural problem,
but the children on the boxes are
not wearing helmets,” Smetana
said.
Smetana said because Razors are
so new, parents don’t place the
same amount of emphasis on safety
precautions that they would for
bikes and in-line skates.
In addition to the Razor, Smetana
said the report addresses the balls,
balloons and small toys that pose
choking and strangulation hazards
to children younger than three
years old.
The report highlights toys with
toxic chemical exposure hazards,
focuses on toymaker compliance
with the 1994 Federal Child Safety
Protection Act and offers tips for
parents on which toys parents
should not purchase.
“These toys are not in little mom
and pop stores,” said Alysa Castro,
OSPIRG’s project coordinator for
consumer awareness. “They are in
big chain stores like Toys ‘R’ Us,
and parents were really shocked to
find that out.”
In the past 14 years, PIRG reports
have led to 68 toy recalls and en
forcement actions by the Consumer
.Aft. Aft. .Aft
Product Safety Commission.
A CPSC report last year said that
of the estimated 153,400 people
treated in hospital emergency
rooms for toy-related injuries, 45
percent were younger than five
years old.
“Bin toys” are the most common
choking hazard because they don’t
have warning labels and are often
near cash registers and easily acces
sible to children.
Castro said parents can test to
see if a bin toy is small enough to
choke on by sending it through
empty toilet paper tube, which is
slightly larger than a child’s
esophagus.
In addition to toy sales in stores,
Smetana said Internet toy sales
grew from 45 million in 1998 to 425
million in 1999. She said this dra
matic increase in parents opting to
buy holiday gifts online is due to
convenience.
But she said newly emerging toy
companies selling products on the
Internet are not required to post the
same warning labels on the Internet
as they do on packages.
“We are urging manufacturers to
provide warnings on the Web,”
Smetana said. “We are urging Con
gress and CPSC to support propos
als that would make hazard warn
ings mandatory on the Internet. ”
Castro said despite the hazards,
progress is evident because parents
are becoming more vigilant about
the toys they buy.
“Conditions with toy safety are
improving because each year it is
harder to find unsafe toys on the
shelf,” Castro said.
Suzi Blanchard, director of the
Co-op Family Center at Spencer
View said child-care providers are
realizing fewer toys are better for
children. She encouraged parents
to buy their children wooden toys,
art material, pull toys and clay.
“Fill up an empty soda bottle
with water,” Blanchard said. “Kids
will play with it for hours. ”
Blanchard recommended par
ents stay away from computerized
toys and one-dime nsional toys.
She said simple toys cause children
to use their imaginations, and they
stimulate the brain.
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