J.C. Penney, Others Recall Toys For Lead Contamination

Friday, October 12th 2007, 10:48 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ More than 90,000 children's products, most imported by J.C. Penney Co. Inc., were recalled Thursday for containing dangerous levels of lead, a government safety group announced.

J.C. Penney recalled Chinese-made Winnie the Pooh play sets and decorative ornaments with a horse-theme, as well as art kits made in Taiwan and Vietnam. Totaling 70,400, the toys imported and sold by J.C. Penney all had excessive levels of lead in their surface paint.

Lead is toxic if ingested by young children. Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than 0.06% lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.

Consumer Product Safety Commission spokeswoman Julie Vallese said this round of toy recalls is ``the direct result of the commitment that was made earlier this summer of cleaning the proverbial house.''

``We anticipate that we will continue to find products that are in violation, but we also anticipate that the number of products that are in violation will go down,'' she said.

Due to the recent increase in recalls of lead-contaminated toys, J.C. Penney asked an independent laboratory to perform additional tests on its painted toys, according to spokeswoman Darcie Brossart. This process started sometime in August, she said, and the company alerted the CPSC to a potential recall just under two weeks ago.

An additional 20,300 Chinese-made toys were recalled by three other companies, according to CPSC. Miniature Jeff Gordon NASCAR helmets by Riddell Inc., bendable dinosaur toys by Kipp Brothers, and magnetic art kits by Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores were also recalled for lead-contamination.

``What we don't want parents to do is say 'oh not another one' and do nothing about it,'' Vallese said. She encouraged parents not only to remove the recalled toys from children, but to follow the instructions to obtain refund or replacement products.

``Consumers do deserve to get something back for their recalled product,'' Vallese said.

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