Danger in Toyland

A Party Pack Five-Fringed Balloon Squawker is simply a balloon with a small metal noisemaker attached. The problem, as one irate parent noted, is this: "My daughter, aged four, did not take the mouthpiece out of her mouth when she let the air out, and the metal piece that makes the noise shot down her throat. She started to gag and turn blue. Fortunately, she had just had dinner and the gagging made her vomit, forcing out the piece of metal."

Other children may not be so lucky, and the Food and Drug Administration last week said that it would take steps to ban Balloon Squawkers and three other potentially harmful toys: metal-tipped lawn darts that have pierced a child's skull, a super-loud cap gun that can cause ear damage, and a baby rattle that can fall apart and expose sharp metal prongs. If carried out, it would be the first FDA prescription under the Child Protection and Toy Safety Act of 1969.

Refund Threat. Though FDA will wait at least 15 days for replies from the makers before enforcing the prohibitions, the announcement served as a warning to the presently booming $2.3 billion-a-year toy industry. With five shopping weeks remaining until Christmas, sales are up as much as 12%--despite the general economic slump. Nevertheless, Government intervention, though limited, may well cause many buyers to be more cautious. For toys that are finally banned by the FDA, the penalty can be retroactive: a provision of the act requires retailers to refund the purchase price of a condemned toy; the store owner can then seek reimbursement from the manufacturer.

For some companies--like R.B. Jarts Co. of Fort Edward, N.Y., whose only product for twelve years has been the lawn darts--the law could spell ruin. "I'd rather be hit by a lawn dart than by a horseshoe," bristles Jarts President Robert Barnett. "Kids can hurt themselves with bicycles and archery and rifles too. Why aren't they included?"

Most companies, however, are taking the prospect of tougher safety enforcement more gracefully. "We're just poor country boys manufacturing what we consider to be good toys," said an executive of Ohio Art Co., maker of the cap gun cited by FDA. "We're not manufacturing anything with the intention of hurting a child. We are concerned with safety." Actually, the industry has little to fear in the way of a general crackdown; the Government has moved with a caution bordering on lethargy. Since the safety statute was passed eleven months ago, FDA and its parent, the Department of Health. Education and Welfare, have been working out generous compromises over hazardous products rather than banning them outright. All together, FDA has talked manufacturers into modifying or discontinuing 24 items.

Molten Lead. In keeping with the benign attitude that characterizes the approach of many Government regulatory programs, and because the Toy Safety Act is ambiguous as to enforcement, the FDA has chosen to ignore the law's emergency provision. That provision could be used to end the sale of an item before a hearing. As it stands, even the four toys already cited will probably be around as long as retailers' stocks last--almost surely well past Christmas.

Irked at what they called "flagrant disregard for the safety of children," the Consumers Union and the Children's Foundation, both nonprofit groups, threatened last week to sue HEW Secretary Elliot Richardson for failure to use the emergency powers. "This is inexcusable inattention," said Morris Kaplan, Consumers Union technical director. "How many children have to be maimed or killed at Christmas before HEW acts?"

The groups want the four cited toys off the shelves by Christmas, as well as five additional toys that FDA refuses to take action on. Included are two poorly insulated stoves that reach temperatures of up to 600 degrees, a metal-casting set that can ignite paper or dangling sleeves, a crib mobile that can shatter in a baby's face, and a mechanical drawing toy with an easily breakable glass cover. Though makers of all five toys say that they have corrected the faults, Kaplan contends that stores are still selling the unimproved versions. "Toy models often have a short life," he said. "If a manufacturer can avoid the requirements of the act simply by discontinuing manufacture after having filled the pipeline of retail stores, the act will become a mockery."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.