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Unsafe Chinese Products

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This page is a group effort. If you spot a new report of a dangerous Chinese-made product, please drop a link in the comments below, and don’t forget to click here to “Digg” and spread the word.

The CPSC has started getting deeply involved in this, and now, they’ve demanded and gotten an agreement from Chinese regulators to do a better job of policing themselves. Whether the Chinese are (a) willing and (b) able to abide by that agreement remains to be seen, but now that consumers and retailers are reconsidering the consumer appeal of “Made in China,” China has an incentive to keep the death traps off our shelves.

[Last update: 13 September 2007]

Toys and Products for Children

  • Imaginarium Wooden Coloring Cases. Reason: Lead paint on the outer packaging of the wooden case. Units sold: About 27,000.
  • Barbie Accessories. Reason: lead paint. Units sold: About 675,000. There are so many affected accessories that the CPSC page includes a chart.
  • Big Big World 6-in-1 Bongo Band toys. Reason: lead paint. Units sold: About 8,900. CPSC description: “The recalled toys have two bongos, including one with a yellow and green plastic drum base with a blue drum surface. The other bongo is yellow and green plastic drum base with an orange drum surface with ‘It’s a Big, Big World’ printed on it.” Fisher-Price is offering free replacements.
  • Geo Trax Locomotive Toys. Reason: Lead paint. Units sold: About 90,000. CPSC description: “These toys are red with yellow paint on the ladder and horn details. The recalled models … have a date code between 212-6CK through 325-6CK or 001-7CK through 232-7CK marked on the bottom of the product. The packaging on the Freightway Transport model is marked H5705 and the packaging on the Special Track Pack model is marked K3013.”
  • Fisher-Price Dora the Explorer, Big Bird, and Elmo toys. Reason: Lead Paint. Units sold: a mere 1.5 million. More Information and Product Photos here and here. I found some of these toys in my own kids’ playroom.
  • Die-cast vehicles featuring the Sarge character from the movie “Cars” (photo). Reason: Lead Paint. Units sold: 253,000. More information and product photos here and here.
  • 63 Varieties of Mattel toys, made since 2002 and sold before January of this year, including 44 Polly Pocket toys, 11 Doggie Day Care toys, 4 Batman toys (photo), a One Piece toy, and Barbie and Tanner play sets. Reason: Small, powerful magnets in the toys come loose and are suspected of causing deaths and injuries to children who ingested them. If two more more magnets stick together inside a child’s body, they can block the child’s intestinal tract. Number of Items Sold: a mere 9.3 million. Many of the magnetic toys are older and may have been purchased as early as 2003. More Information and Product Photos here and here.
  • Hasbro Easy-Bake Ovens. Hazard: The oven door is a hand trap. Kids get their hands caught in the opening to the scorching hot oven. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, “Easy-Bake has received 249 reports of children getting their hands or fingers caught in the oven’s opening, including 77 reports of burns, 16 of which were reported as second and third-degree burns. Easy-Bake also received one report of a serious burn that required a partial finger amputation to a 5-year-old girl.” Units: About 1 million.
  • Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway Toys. Reason: Lead paint. Units sold: A mere 1.5 million. More photos and information here.
  • SpongeBob SquarePantsâ„¢ Address Books and Journals. Reason: Lead paint. Units: About 250,000.
  • Priddy “Trucks” Shaker Teether Books. Reason: Choking hazard; small pieces of the teether can break off. St. Martin’s Press has received two reports of children biting off pieces of the teethers. No injuries reported. Units: About 35,000.
  • Spinning Tops and Tin Pails. The recalled tops and pails are primarily metal and have wooden handles. The tops are painted with Thomas and Friends, Curious George, or a circus scene. The pails are painted with Thomas and Friends, Curious George, or in a solid red or yellow color. Hazard: Lead paint. Units: About 66,000 spinning tops and about 4,700 pails.
  • Children’s Divine Inspiration Charm Bracelets. The recalled charm bracelets have silver-colored charms, including angels, crosses, and hearts, and clear and pink beads that hang from a silver-colored chain. They were sold at dollar stores and other small retail stores nationwide from March 2004 through August 2007. Hazard: Lead paint. Units: About 7,900.
  • TOBY & ME Jewelry Sets. The three recalled jewelry sets include: a princess pink and clear crystal bead necklace and bracelet set with a painted metallic crown pendant; a pink and white pearl necklace and bracelet set with a painted metallic poodle pendant; and a pink pearl necklace, earrings and ring set. All sets are sold in a pink gift box with “TOBY & ME” printed on the front and “TOBY & ME” hangtags attached to the packaging. Hazard: Lead paint. Units: About 14,000.

(Lead is toxic if ingested by young children. Under current regulations, children’s products found to have more than .06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall. More information about the effects of lead poisoning here.)

Other Dangerous Chinese Products

  • Sandals from Wal-Mart. Reason: They cause severe chemical burns to the feet of those who wear them (warning: images may gross you out). Units sold: Unknown, but multiple users have reported the burns, and Wal-Mart has pulled them from the shelves.
  • Condoms. From the Washington Post: “Tens of thousands of condoms provided free by the District to curb HIV-AIDS have been returned to the health department because of complaints that their paper packaging is easily damaged and could render the condoms ineffective.” Insert your own overpopulation joke.
  • Outdoor candles. Reason: Apparently made from surplus napalm. Units sold: About 83,000. On the plus side, they’re useful for acts of sectarian violence and backyard reenactments of “Saddam and the Kuwaiti oil fields.” Light fuse, get away, call Red Adair.
  • Iced Tea Makers. Reason: They burst into flame, a true feat of deathtrappery for something you fill with water. Units sold: 10,000.
  • Emergency Tool Kits. Reason: “Booster cables in the recalled kits can have undersized wiring and inadequate connections, posing a fire and shock hazard to consumers.” Units sold: About 43,000, mostly in flea markets and other discount vendors.
  • Blankets, woolen and cotton clothing sold in Australia and New Zealand, including children’s jammies. Hazard: Levels of formaldehyde at 900 times that considered safe. More: A very disturbing photo of an injured child here, although I’ve been unable to verify the link between the products and the photo. Number and places of units sold: still unknown. As of this writing, the story was less than a week old.
  • Vinyl Baby Bibs, including some sold under the brand names Especially for Baby and Koala Baby. Hazard: lead contamination. Units: Unknown, and so far, there’s not much useful product information at the CPSC site. The bibs were sold for less than $5 each at Toys R Us and Babies R Us.
  • Toddler Drinking Bottles, sold in the UK supermarket chain Asda (and possibly elsewhere?). “The drinks bottles involved in the recall are orange with a snail and spider image, pink with a butterfly image and yellow with a star image.” Reason: Choking hazard. The caps can break off. Units sold: 115,000.
  • Toothpaste supplied to hotels worldwide. Hazard: According to the FDA, “[I]ndependent tests showed some samples of the toothpaste contained diethylene glycol, or DEG,” a toxic chemical.
  • Menu Foods Pet Food. Reason: Wheat gluten used in the product contained a banned rodenticide called aminopterin. The contamination is blamed for the deaths of 16 pets and injuries to many others. China denies that it was the source of the contamination. More information here.
  • Light truck radial tires sold under the brand names Westlake, Compass, Telluride and YKS and manufactured by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Hazard: An unwelcome tendency for the treads to separate while being driven on. Units: A mere 450,000.
  • Classic Beauty Rest Electric Warming Throws, model numbers B00106 through B36506. Reason: Fire hazard. According to the CPSC, “[b]unching, folding or tucking of these electric throws can cause them to overheat, resulting in smoldering, melting, fire and burn hazards…. Bilt-Safe has received 38 reports of the throws overheating, including at least 15 reports of fires and four reports of consumers suffering blistering or minor burns to the hand, leg and back.” Units sold: About 37,100.

Things You Probably Wouldn’t Buy Anyway

Why I Created This Page

First, my own kids are 3 and 5, and when I went looking for one site that listed the dizzying number of recalled toys, I didn’t find one. Second, because I wanted to protest and draw attention to the way China treats North Korean refugees. So in the spirit of attaching a financial price to a willful disregard for the lives and safety of others, I present this compilation of dangerous products made in China and shipped to store shelves near you.

You may ask: my agenda aside, why pick on China when products from other countries have also been found to be unsafe? Because that’s where the extra incentive is needed. Check the CPSC Web site, and you’ll see that no other country even approaches China in the sheer number of unsafe exports that caused safety recalls.

If you want to thank me, please Digg this page, send a donation to the North Korean Freedom Coalition or Liberty in North Korea, and write to your newspaper and ask them why they seldom mention what may be the world’s worst concentration camp since the fall of Nazi Germany. That’s where North Korean refugees often end up when China rounds them up and sends them back to the loving arms of Kim Jong Il, in blatant violation of the Refugee Convention, which China signed. The majority of North Korean women refugees hiding from the Chinese police are exploited by either the authorities or criminal gangs.