As
the holiday shopping season kicks off, we have a consumer warning
Tuesday night about magnetic toys. Toy-maker Mattel is recalling more
than 4-million of its Polly Pockets magnetic Play sets.
Tiny
magnets inside the dolls and accessories can fall off and possibly
swallowed by young children, and that can cause intestinal damage or
blockage, which can be deadly. There have been three reports of
children suffering from such injuries and requiring surgery.
The recall is for the play sets sold worldwide from may 2003 through September of this year.
Safety
experts are issuing a warning about Tuesday's recall and a number of
other toys that could be potentially dangerous. Keep this information
in mind particularly when doing your holiday shopping.
Last
year twenty children died from toy-related injuries, and safety experts
continue to find trouble in toyland. Researchers from the Public
Interest Research Group found hazardous toys being sold in stores
across the country.
Books
can be dangerous if infants or toddlers put them in their mouths. Amina
Fazlullah of PennPIRG explains: "Thalides are the type of chemicals
used to soften plastic and are found in these materials can cause
reproductive defects in developing children and cause cancer."
Toys with small magnetic parts have caused intestinal perforation and bowel obstructions.
Toys
that come with small parts, or parts that can be removed or broken off,
also pose choking hazards. And while the consumer product safety
commission uses a cylinder to determine if a product is too small, even
larger toys can get caught in children's throats, and actually doesn't
go all the way down because it's not small enough but suffocates
children.
The
water yo-yo poses a strangulation hazard because the cord can wrap
around children's necks. And jewelry like this may contain unusually
high levels of lead.
