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25 Lines of Chinese Toys Recalled
In early January I was afforded the opportunity to attend the Region 5 Leadership Conference in Palms Spring, California. The three day conference hosted by Regional Director, Jim Wells, brought to those in attendance a wealth of important information that every UAW member would find useful. Being a mom myself and an aunt to small children I personally found the information obtained in class especially useful. J.D. Gray and Keith Skotnes, the Region 5 Education Representatives, talked on the lead problem that we have recently experienced here in the United States. They said we have been hearing about toys with lead in the paint that has been harming our children on the news; it’s been talked about in the newspapers and on TV. As the educational representatives presented this important information the significance of the problem really hit home. They put a picture of some toys on the overhead projector and presented the question “What do all of these toys have in common?” Well, hearing all news about the lead in the paint on toys from China most everyone guessed that all the toys contained lead in the paint and they were from China. J.D. told the class “We have some road scholars in here!” Keith then asked the class if anyone of us went shopping this holiday season? Of course most of us had. He held up a transformer toothbrush and asked if any of us has ever seen one of these before? To my surprise, I had just bought three similar to that one as stocking stuffers for my kids. I never gave any thought to the fact that these toothbrushes may be made in China and contain lead, I just thought they would make cute stocking stuffers. After all living here in this great country of the United States I would have thought that the worry of lead in paint or the threat of any product being contaminated with any kind of toxin that would be harmful to anyone would be preposterous. Did you know the FDA only has 450 inspectors responsible for monitoring 20 million shipments coming into the U.S. annually? The New York Times says that 70-80% of all the toys sold here in the U.S. come from China and Chinese toys account for 60% of all product recalls. There have been 25 lines of toys recalled for safety reasons in the U.S. and yes all 25 originated from China. In 1978 our very own U.S. Government banned the use of lead in paint and now they are allowing these contaminated products to be imported here putting our children at risk. Hearing all these facts from Keith and J.D. all I could think of was, “I hope my kids haven’t opened their new toothbrushes!” Our U.S. Government is sacrificing the health and safety of our children to make a profit. We as U.S. citizens must speak up and insist that our U.S. Government put an end to this toxic waste coming here and putting our children in harms way. We as parents must do what ever it takes to protect our kids. Whether if it’s as little as looking at the labels of all products or testing all products that we purchase with a lead testing kit. (A lead testing kit may be found in stores like Lowe’s). We all need to use our voice to speak up about this problem before it is too late. Speak to all of our elected officials. Write them letters to make them aware that we are not blinded by this serious situation nor should they be. Make them take their blinders off and allow more inspectors to handle the flow of imports into our great country. Tell them that there is not any greater profit than the good health of our children. |
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