WASHINGTON – Toy-makers, clothing manufacturers and other companies selling products for young children are submitting samples to independent laboratories for safety tests. But the nation's largest toy maker, Mattel, isn't being required to do the same.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently, and quietly, granted Mattel's request to use its own labs for testing that is required under a law Congress passed last summer in the wake of a rash of recalls of toys contaminated by lead. Six of those toys were produced by Mattel Inc., and its subsidiary Fisher-Price.
The new law sets strict limits for lead, lead paint and chemicals known as phthalates. It mandates third-party testing for companies, big and small, making products geared for children 12 and under.
"It's really ironic that the company that was a principal source of the problem" is now getting favorable treatment from the government, said Michael Green, executive director of the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, Calif.
It sure does make me happy to know that the government is looking out for our kids and not our corporations....
The agency approved seven Mattel labs as "firewalled third party laboratories" — the first to get that designation under the new law, which permits the "firewall" exception. Mattel pushed hard for the firewalled labs provision when Congress was considering the legislation. The company spent more than $1 million in 2008 on lobbying, according to federal records.
Mattel's "firewalled" labs are in Mexico, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and California.
CPSC issued no press release about the 3-0 vote in Mattel's favor, and information on the vote was not posted on the commission's Web site section pertaining to the CPSIA law.
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