Even though toys today are safer than ever before, parents shopping for Christmas presents for their children are being warned to be aware of the hidden hazards some toys present.
Years of work by product safety advocates, parents and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), have ensured the toy market is a relatively safe place.
However the 2005 Trouble in Toyland report, the 20th annual Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) survey of toy safety, nevertheless provides safety guidelines for parents when purchasing toys for small children and gives examples of toys currently on store shelves that may pose potential safety hazards.
In the report PIRG’s research focused on four danger areas:
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toys that may pose choking hazards,
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toys that may pose strangulation hazards,
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toys that are excessively loud, and
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toys that contain potentially toxic chemicals.
The PIRG researchers visited numerous toy stores and other retailers to find potentially dangerous toys and identify trends in toy safety.
The main concerns include:
Between 1990 and 2004, at least 157 children died after choking or asphyxiating on a toy or toy part; seven children died in 2004 alone.
The researchers still found toys for children under three with small parts, and toys with small parts for children under six without the statutory choke hazard warning label.
Many toys were over-labelled by the placement of choke hazard warnings on items that did not contain small parts.
Balloons, which cause more choking deaths than any other children’s product, are still marketed specifically for children under age three.
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Strangulation hazards - ASTM safety standards are enforceable by CPSC, but the researchers found that the popular yo-yo water ball poses particular hazards to young children, including strangulation and other injury to the eyes, neck and face, while new versions of the toy contain batteries to make the toy flash which can tear through the toy easily, posing a choking hazard if swallowed.
The toy has been banned in some states.
New acoustics standard for toys, were set in 2003 and the loudness threshold for most handheld toys is 90 decibels; prolonged exposure to sounds at 85 decibels or higher can result in hearing damage.