Trouble in Toyland: The 22nd Annual Survey of Toy Safety
11/20/2007
Executive Summary
For several years, we have reported that
toys are safer than ever before, thanks to
decades of work by product safety advocates
and parents and the leadership of Congress,
state legislatures and the Consumer Product
Safety Commission (CPSC). Yet, as many
have noted, 2007 has been described as the
“year of the recall.” Millions of toys,
including famous playthings like Thomas the
Tank Engine and Barbie, have been recalled
in 2007. Many of these toys have been from
leading manufacturers like Mattel, and most
were imported from China. Most of the
recalls have been for hazards previously
identified in this report—excessive levels of
toxic lead, dangerous small magnets, and
choking dangers.
These troubling events have reminded
Americans that no government agency tests
toys before they are put on the shelves. These
events provide a warning that as parents and
other toygivers venture into crowded malls
this holiday season, they should remain
vigilant about often hidden hazards posed by
toys on store shelves.
The dramatic wave of toy, food and other
consumer product recalls has spurred intense
attention from policymakers to the problems
of consumer safety generally and the limits of
the long-neglected Consumer Product Safety
Commission specifically. The CPSC is the
nation’s smallest safety agency, yet it is
responsible for 15,000 different products—
from chain saws to escalators and from
kitchen appliances to toys. Its current actual
budget ($63 million) is less than half of what
its 1974 startup budget ($34 million) would
be today if merely corrected for inflation
($140 million). It has only one toy tester at its
decrepit Maryland laboratory; worse, only 15
of 400 total staff (down from a 1980 peak of
978) are on duty full-time as port inspectors.
That problem is exasperated because since
the tragedies of September 11, customs
inspectors and others that had buttressed this
tiny force have been re-tasked.
In addition to expanding the agency’s
budget, policymakers are planning to give the
CPSC more tools to hold corporate
wrongdoers accountable and speed recalls, to
ban toxic lead except in trace amounts and to
greatly improve import surveillance.
The holes in the product safety net can, and
must be, repaired to restore the confidence of
parents and other toygivers that the gifts that
they purchase will bring pleasure, not worry.
The 2007 Trouble in Toyland report is the
22nd annual Public Interest Research Group
(PIRG) survey of toy safety. This report
provides safety guidelines for parents when
purchasing toys for small children and
provides examples of toys currently on store
shelves that may pose potential safety
hazards. We visited numerous toy stores and
other retailers to find potentially dangerous
toys and identify trends in toy safety. This
year, we focused on four categories of toys:
toys that may pose choking hazards, magnetic
toys, toys that are excessively loud, and toys
that contain lead and other potentially toxic
chemicals.
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Read our news release.
 Download the full report.
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