Saskatchewan family sues Mattel for lead in toys

Ok this piece actually made me laugh out loud... mostly because the lawyer in the case is um... well-known in SK for the cases he chooses. Let's just say that his nickname "Tony the rat" is not entirely undeserved. ;-) (I worked at a law firm briefly....)


http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/11/27/lawsuit-saskatchewan.html

Nice to see that Canada is catching up with its litigious neighbour to the south in the lawsuit department.

On Yonge Street

Right near our hotel from our Toronto trip this weekend was this place that Brett spotted first and then ran back to tell me about it.... ok, should we be suspicious of a restaurant that advertises itself as "Made in China"? I mean, aside from the obvious question of freshness... ;-) I was slightly disappointed to find out it was a restaurant, as I was already composing a blogpost in my head about a store completely filled with items MIC.. oh wait, that already exists, it's called EVERY FREAKING STORE.

http://www.madeinchinarestaurant.com/

Yes, but do they have LEAD in them? ;-)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/20/crucifixes.ap/index.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- A labor rights group alleged Tuesday that crucifixes sold in religious gift shops in the U.S. are produced under "horrific" conditions in a Chinese factory with more than 15-hour workdays and inadequate food.

"It's a throwback to the worst of the garment sweatshops 10, 20 years ago," said Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee.

Totally Off Topic but hey.... it's my blog... ;-)

I have to share this video ..... you might notice a familiar pair of boys snuggled up with their mama. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFVkDV45MM#GU5U2spHI_4

If you like it, please add it to your favs, link to it, yadda yadda. :-) Much appreciated. Pass it on to any birthing women in your life.

Livin' in an Amish toy paradise....

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/11/11/seavert.oh.non.toxic.toys.wbns

And here is a link to the woman's website:

http://www.anaturalhome.com/

oooh! she has organic mattresses too! Sweeet.

Ok you asked for it, you got it....

Finally, a site listing domestically made toys that isn't full of dead links!

http://www.toysmadeinamerica.com/

Anyone manage to wrest themselves from the grasp of the MIC market even a tad? It's not too late......

Seriously, is no one else paying attention?

Why are we still gobbling this crap up? And I can't say it enough... THIS IS ONLY THE STUFF THAT WE KNOW ABOUT!!!! What else is lurking in your toybox? For Pete's sake am I wearing a frickin' camel skin and wandering in the desert?

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/11/08/toy.recall/index.html

No, I'm sure the stuff YOU bought from China is perfectly fine and safe. Don't worry about it.

Aedhan's China-Free(ish) Birthday

Well I wasn't going to get all crazy on the guests with my China-free thing, so I can't say it was 100% China-free. But we did pretty well for the stuff Brett and I picked out for him.

Football peg game - USA
Crane & assorted wooden toys - PLAN toys, Thailand
Books - USA, Canada
CD - USA
Metal build it yourself toy - totally, 100% MIC evil... but we bought it in August.


I'm finding we have so little to post on, on our China-free year blog... because, um, well.... we're so poor right now, we're not doing a whole lot of buying ANY consumer goods! Gee, it's really suprisingly easy to avoid buying MIC stuff when you're not buying ANYTHING. Uh uh, where was our furnace made.... we just had to install a new one. Sigh.

Ok folks...

Clearly y'all haven't been doing your job. Of converting all your friends and neighbours to the ways of the China-free. :-)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071017/ts_nm/china_safety_dc

China-Free Canada partner blog now open!!!

Shout-out to my friend Kelly in the lovely northland, who just started this blog:

http://www.chinafreecanada.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

Dust-buster as dinosaur and other imaginative toys

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3312229n

What makes me laugh is the last line....

um, no, it probably doesn't... but there's OTHER evil stuff in there! Let's not go there. :-)

Low-tech toys you have SO much fun with.....

http://lifehacker.com/software/kids/10-ways-to-entertain-young-children-for-1-or-less-without-the-tv-283550.php

My elder son got WAY excited about this site today. And I keep thinking about the fun memories I had as a kid.... almost all of the ones that popped to mind involved playing imaginary games or stuff with like, sticks. I certainly remember fighting over the Lite Brite and learning how to value appearances by grooming my Barbies (ha!) but the real FUN was always low-tech.

Make something, right now! go go go!

Just in case you still don't feel guilty enough..... ;-)

Click this link at your own peril. ;-)

http://www.newstarget.com/022014.html

And remember kids, just because you're a conspiracy nut, doesn't mean they're not out to get you. :-)

I'm only poisoning my kids with shampoo so far this week, so I'm doing well. Oops and they had hotdogs at Skyline Chili this afternoon.

Mattel Apologizes to China

Oh. Please.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1664428,00.html

I can't possibly guess how this went down.

Mattel CEO: You suck, China.

China: um, yeah. Say that again, and we'll kick your company out and you'll have to find a cheaper place to do business... oh, what's that? there isn't one? Then grovel, you hack!

Mattel CEO: Really, it's our fault. Here, let me fall on this cheaply made plastic lead-filled sword...that incidentally, was also our fault.

Mammon wins again! How ironic today that the reading in church was about "you cannot serve two masters".

Free Lead Testing for Toys

Cincinnati's Price Hill neighbourhood (for Regina readers, think North Central, for Rochester readers think 19th ward) is high-risk for kids and lead. What a great idea to have a toy testing!

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20070914/NEWS01/309140023/

We didn't hear about it until too late or I would have been tempted to scoop up a bunch of things and take them in. However, I am going to call and find out what method they're using for the testing.

Why not contact your own city officials and ask if they'll provide this service for your community?

Playmobil - if it's German it can't be bad!

Blatant "Simpsons" reference aside, I do really enjoy German toys. :-)

Thrilled to find out today that Playmobil says this:

Only a few parts, less than 2 percent of the complete range of toys, are sourced from high-quality, long-term Chinese production partners. PLAYMOBIL sources these components because of the substantial amount of hand labor they require. We hold these manufacturers to the same high standards as we do with our European counterparts.

Now, ok, they're still plastic. But one step at a time, right? This is especially good for suggesting to family members that can't quite get their head around crunchier gifts, but Playmobil would be mainstream enough that they could feel they were having shopping fun, without having to think too hard.

Again, I'm not pretending there is a perfect solution, we could nitpick all day down to the idea that none of us should buy toys we didn't make ourselves, anyway... but just be conscious, ok?

(although, re-reading The Little House books with Aedhan, I figure I could probably at least wrap a corncob in a blanket for a doll, right? I'm that crafty. )

Mattel CEO in hotseat

While I certainly don't believe this is just Mattel's problem, this is an interesting article.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/09/07/toy_recalls_challenge_mattel_ceo/

The CEO's lauded strategy for pulling Mattel out of the doldrums and turning them back into a profitable, competitive company, seems to have involved closing down the last US plant and moving its entire production line overseas. ("Overseas" being a nice euphemism that could fool one into thoughts of European gnomes tinkering away in a Santa's workshop type environment... but uh, we all know now it just means: China) Mattel's argument has been that it owns a larger portion of its factories in China. This is oft-cited by other companies.. I recently got an email in my inbox from the company that makes Cranium, waxing eloquent about how it owns its Chinese factories and yadda yadda that makes for better product. Hmm. Apparently not.

Now, I don't follow the stock market, as our retirement plan consists of assuming the world is going to go to hell in a handbasket before we hit 65 anyway.... but apparently Mattel's stock has fallen about 10%. Only 10%????

I find the prospect of watching congressional hearings to be dreary, at best, but perhaps I'll at least buzz the news sites to catch the condensed version of "but.. but.. but..." that is sure to come out of this guy's mouth.

And again, I point out: WHAT ABOUT ALL THE TOYS ON THE SHELF ALREADY, BEFORE THE RECALL! It's not like the Chinese suddenly discovered lead in the last 3 months and quickly stuffed all the factories full of it. What is sitting RIGHT in our homes at this moment?

Guest post from a reporter in the field

In the interests of actually getting to do some laundry today, I bring you a special report instead of actually um, writing one myself. Thanks, Mike!

Krista, Your crack, China-free researcher reporting in from the wilds of Vermont. While planning fun and exciting day trips for two small wonderkunds, several original American treasures were found that should be featured prominately on your China-free sites.

Michael & Paul will be visiting the first company today and can send a more detailed report later on how successful they were in prying cash from the crack researcher's wallet to bring home samples of the work this company does.

You can check out their products, as well as their own China-free ethos (look for the china with red circle and slash on the home page) at the following internet destination.http://www.maplelandmark.com/

The second company offers a wide, wide selection of items, including flannel shirts from Ireland, hats from New Zealand, oldtimey food items from around the world (like the old fashioned candies your grandmother probably put out for the holidays) and many American made products. This company does carry some items from China, but in this researcher's experience is open about the source of their products. Check these folks out at http://www.vermontcountrystore.com

Please place this information on one or both of your China-free sites in the appropriate places. Further reports forthcoming as the research continue.

Your Intrepid Researcher
(ps, the wife says Hi!)

Tips for early shoppers like me!

Great tips have been flooding in from many sources, thanks to all! Here are a select few until I get the website pages up with the mega-lists.

(Coming soon, Canadian-made products and toys for my Canadian readers! Can I tell you how WEIRD it still feels to type "Made in USA" as "domestic"???? LOL)

http://usmadetoys.com
This is a great site, there are lots of "classic" toys (could there be anything more fun than a Slinky, come on now!) and even stuff for older kids like science kits.

http://roytoy.com
This is a coooool site with real wood building sets. Not a huge selection, but I also like that they have unpainted logs, good for those kids that like to chew on older siblings toys! *cough* Not that I have a child like that.

And also, with a shout-out to Becca, I wanted to introduce you all to these incredibly addictive and fun games: The Settlers of Catan! (with a million offshoots) These games were the only things we could find in 30 minutes of shopping at King Arthur's Court in Hyde Park that were not Made in China. Here is a link: http://catanonline.com/

This Christmas, A Lump of Lead?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1659711,00.html

The thing that really bothers me most about all of this is, what about the toys we ALREADY HAVE in our homes? Before anyone was thinking to test them for lead? Do we have Diego, Dora, Barbie or our homes? (ok we don't, b/c they all annoy me, but we have Baby Einstein, Folkmanis - yep, made in China - plus a host of other brand names including HABA that may not be exempt)

What I want to know is, will those home lead tests, the little things you can swipe on your walls, etc, to test for lead... will they pick up lead paint on a toy? Because if so, I'm going to Home Depot to pick me up a gross of those thingies.

When I was home in Canada this summer, I would talk about my second son's lead test, and immediately be met with blank stares. Lead testing isn't standard in Canada for whatever reason. I'm urging my fellow Canadians to ask for lead testing for your children, for peace of mind. If they've been sucking on a lead-paint covered toy for 2 years, they certainly are at risk of having high lead levels with all the neurological implications that carries.

Welcome to a China*-free** X***mas****

Disclaimers below:

* - Ok, so the point of this whole thing isn't just to bash China, as worthy a goal as that might be. ;-) "China" to me just represents what we're trying to get away from.... mass produced products from another country that has iffy standards and work practices and requires a crapload of fossil fuels to be shipped/flown to North America for our cheap enjoyment. It's a lot easier to type "China-free" than "Korea/China/Vietman/whatever-free", know what I mean? You wanna pick nits with that, go ahead, just not here. :-)

** - Also, "free" is really not meant to be some martyr-ish lofty goal that I will scorn you for not upholding. Come on now. :-) I want to challenge you to be conscious, make choices, think about where this stuff is coming from and what consequences that has. If that means that 95%, or 50%, or even 20% of your Christmas shopping this year is China-free by purposeful choice, then that's great. Not that I discourage any of you from joining us in our goal for 100% China-free Xmas, but let's put away the hairshirts for a while yet, m'kay?

*** - Anyone so inclined to get their knickers in a knot about how I just blithely "took the Christ out of Christmas" can click here. Typing Xmas saves my wee fingers. :-)

**** - And last but not least, look, I'm Christian and my family and I celebrate Christmas. For ME, the author of this blog, we're planning a China-Free Christmas. If any of you so desire, you can go right ahead and plan a China-free Yule, Kwanzaa, Hannukah, "holiday season" or whatever else you enjoy celebrating with the purchasing of material goods during December.

Ok, we done now? Let's get blogging!