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Toy Safety Month: US PIRG gets it RIGHT(2)

By Megan Roth

pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"Alright, per my previous article, Irsquo;m already responsible for the lsquo;fun kill.rsquo; Surprisingly enough, I donrsquo;t really feel that bad about ithellip;/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"In fact, I consider a follow-up to my not-so-optimistic article a grand idea. Aah, donrsquo;t hatehellip;the folo may prove worth your while (considering a href="http://www.exponent.com/Toy-Hazard-Assessment/"approximately 3 billion toys are sold in the US each year/a and approximately 45 million have been recalled within the past two years alone)./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"When shopping for the tots, you should be aware of which a href="http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/category/toy.html"toys have been recalled/a. Irsquo;m not saying to memorize the list (heck, who could? I think yoursquo;re more likely to remember the first 700 digits of pi than you are to remember this list); however, I do think itrsquo;s beneficial to be familiar with some of the more a href="http://www.toyhazardrecalls.com/"recent recalls/a./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"You donrsquo;t even have to iread /ithe list - just browse through it. And if the previously linked list of recalls seems daunting (as it should be ndash; it lists recalls dating back to 1975), check out the a href="http://www.mybabysupport.com/recalls/alltoysrecall/"U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissions toy hazard recall list as of July 2008/a). /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"I did so before shopping for my godchild and, though I didnrsquo;t remember many of the specific products that were recalled, I did remember the brands. And I was aware of what the recalls were concerning (choking hazards from small pieces, lead paint, etc)./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"We ended up settling on a mini basketball hoop type machine (like the ones you see in arcades). Granted, they may very well recall the product months down the road; however, for the time being itrsquo;s deemed as safe (obnoxious, but safe) and I did the best that I could to make sure I was buying something he would enjoy but that isnrsquo;t thought to jeopardize his health./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"Another factor I considered was the physical aspect of the game. Last year we bought him a a href="http://www.leapfrog.com/en/shop.html"Leap-Frog Learning/a book, which is thought to stimulate the mind. I loved that idea but, being the cool godmother, I couldnrsquo;t give the same gift (or anything remotely similar) twice./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"As if buying a completely different but equally cool gift isnrsquo;t hard enough, add to it the fact that he has basically everything a child could imagine (outside of a pony and a real sword). I would gladly buy him the pony (swords are dangerous, remember?!), but unfortunately my bank account is not without a limit; thus, shopping for the kid is somewhat difficult to buy forhellip;/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"Sound familiar? Come on ndash; admit it ndash; wersquo;ve all run into similar problems. It seems iall /ikids these days have everything! Which makes safety the last thing we want to think about when gift shoppinghellip;/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"But just remember that little list (actually, you'll have to read two lists: the one to Santa emand /emthe recall list just to make sure there's no over-lap). I know, I know ndash; itrsquo;s the holidays and everyone is rushed. There arenrsquo;t enough hours in the day to read the newspaper, let alone a product recall lists. But like I said earlier, it comes down to the safety of your children; and when an issue is as serious as that, therersquo;s i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"no /iexcuse for not reading that list ndash; make the time./p/pa href="http://desmoines.injuryboard.com/defective-and-dangerous-products/toy-safety-month-us-pirg-gets-it-right.aspx?googleid=253778"Originally posted/a at a href="http://www.InjuryBoard.com"InjuryBoard/a by a href="http://www.injuryboard.com/member-profiles/Megan-Roth"Megan Roth/a

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on December 21, 2008 (boomark / email).