As you head out to the toy store for your holiday shopping, make sure the items you select are safe and age-appropriate.
Every year, the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group ("Penn PIRG") lists the most dangerous toys on store shelves.
Penn Pirg's Amina Fazlullah says the worst offenders this year are toys that contain tiny magnets:
"It's
a very strong magnet. And what happens is, they fall out of the toys
which are sometimes building blocks or jewelry, the children will
ingest the magnets, and they will attract inside the body."
She says those magnets do a lot of damage:
"They
can attract through bone, so you can imagine how strong these magnets
are. It's almost like a bullet going off in your stomach."
At least one child died of a stomach perforation and others required life-saving surgery, according to Penn Pirg.
Other
dangerous items include balloons and toys with small parts that can
cause choking, and loud toys which damage hearing. She used a toy truck
as an example:
"The
truck is very loud and it can deafen children because it's so loud.
What parents can do if they buy this (type of) truck is take out the
batteries if it doesn't affect the function, or put duct tape over the
speaker."
When shopping for toys, Fazlullah suggests, read the labels to make sure your selection is age appropriate.
The full report is available at www.pennpirg.org.
