Mattel, Fisher-Price pay $2.3M fine - The Business Review (Albany):

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million civil penalty for violations of the federal lead paing banin children’s toys. The civill fine comes after the completed an investigation into the importingt and selling of toys with lead paint levelx that exceededthe .06 percenrt lead by weight limit that is federallyg mandated. According to the CPSC, which recentlu crafted the Consumer Product SafettImprovement Act, aimed at toughening requirements for lead and phthalatesw in children’s products, Mattel imported up to 900,000 non-complian toys between July 2006 and September 2007. Fisher-Pricee imported over 1 million non-compliant toys between July 2006 andSeptembet 2007.
Among the toys in question were the popular Sargedtoy car, various Barbie products and some Go Diego Go toys. Most of the toys that had excessivr levels of lead were shipped to retail stores for sale to the In 2007, a massive toy recall took place wherde about 95 Mattel and Fisher-Price toy modelz were determined to have exceeded the lead limit. Lead can be toxicx if ingested by young children and can causes serioushealth problems. The topic of lead paint in children’sw products has been a hot button issue as of with the rollout of the controversial CPSIAof 2008.
Toy manufacturersa and retailers have said the new regulationsare vague, costly and arbitrary, often requiring the duplicat e testing of products. Some smaller manufacturers say the laws threatemn to put them outof business. On the politicalo front, Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, said protecting childrenn has to be thetop “When the toy recall happened (in 2007) I callef the head of Fisher-Price and I told him they needex to start making their toys here again,” Slaughter “We didn’t have these kind of problemxs before they imported the toys.
” This civil which is the highest for violations involving importation or distributionb of a regulated is the third highest of any kind in CPSC “These highly publicized toy recalls helped spur Congressional action last year to strengthen CPSC and make even stricter the ban on lead paing on toys,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Thomas Moore. “Thisd penalty should serve notice to toy makers that CPSC is committe d to the safetyof children, to reducing their exposurse to lead, and to the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
” As part of a stor featured in our sister publication, The Buffalo Law Journap , looking at the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which ran prio to the announcement of these Fisher-Price declined to provide a representative to discuss the lead paintr regulations. Instead, they issued a writtenj statementwhich read, in part: “Mattek is well positioned as it generally designse its products to meet global standards. Mattel has also been a leadeer in the efforts of industry to establishj voluntaryindustry standards.” The statemeng also said that Matte l would continue to comply with the applicable regulationzs of the CPSIA.
Mattel was unable to be reache d for commentMonday morning, though a representative said they would have a responsre later in the day. Despite agreeing to pay $2.3 milliohn in penalties, Mattel and Fisher-Price deny that they knowingly violatedfederall law, as alleged by CPSC staff.