Violation Tracker and Toy Safety
By Phil Mattera, Dirt Diggers Digest
Violation
Tracker, the new database of corporate misconduct, can help identify
which companies have the worst safety records when it comes to toys and other
items for children. Among the agencies from which the database has collected
environmental, health and safety enforcement data is the Consumer Product
Safety Commission, which pays close attention to hazards in items used by young
people.
The CPSC maintains a database of
voluntary recalls and sends letters
to companies asking for corrective action, but it also imposes civil penalties
in cases of egregious violations. The following list, takenfrom
Violation Tracker, shows the companies with the largest CPSC penalties since
the beginning of 2010.
Discount clothing retailer Ross Stores was fined $3.9
million in connection with the sale of thousands of children’s garments with
neck or waist drawstrings that posed a strangulation risk. The CPSC had
previously determined that such garments created a “substantial product
hazard.”
Phil & Teds, a manufacturer of strollers and related baby gear, was fined $3.5
million for failing to report that its MeToo clip-on high chair could detach
from a table and cause an infant to fall to the ground. If only one side
of the high chair detached, a child’s fingers could become crushed between the
bar and the clamping mechanism, resulting in amputation. The company had
received multiple reports of such accidents, including two amputation cases,
but did not report them to the CPSC in a timely manner.
The American subsidiary of Japan’s Daiso Industries was fined $2.05
million and had to stop importing children’s products and toys into the United
States. The CPSC had determined that the company was distributing and selling
toys with illegal levels of lead content, lead paint and phthalates; toys
intended for young children containing small parts that posed choking hazards;
and products that lacked required warning labels.
Michigan-based retailer Meijer was fined $2
million for selling a dozen different recalled consumer products, most of which
were for children. Among these were SlingRider
Baby Slings (risk of suffocation), Refreshing Rings Infant Teethers/Rattles
imported by Sassy (ingestion hazard), and the Harmony High Chair manufactured
by Graco Children’s Products (fall hazard).
Burlington Coat Factory, owned by Bain Capital, was fined $1.5
million for the same violation as Ross Stores: selling children’s clothing with
drawstrings deemed to be a strangulation hazard. Among the garments were hooded
jackets and sweatshirts involved in a 2010 recall announced by the CPSC in
cooperation with the company. Macy’s was fined $750,000
in another drawstring case.
Spin Master Inc. was fined $1.3
million for failing to reports hazards associated with its product called Aqua
Dots, a children’s craft kit and toy that consisted of tiny beads of different colors
that stuck together when sprayed with water.
According to the CPSC, Spin Master
had received reports that children (and a dog) had become ill and received
emergency medical treatment after ingesting Aqua Dots, which contained a
substance that could damage kidneys and the central nervous system.
Henry Gordy International, a subsidiary of Exx Inc., was fined $1.1
million for failing to report that its toy dart gun sets contained parts that
could be inhaled into a child’s throat and cause suffocation. The CPSC also
alleged that the company made a material misrepresentation to agency staffers
during their investigation.
Violation Tracker data currently goes back only to the beginning of
2010, but toy safety problems began well before that. One perennial problem was
the sale of items containing lead or lead paint, especially by the dollar store
chains. In 2009 Dollar General was fined $100,00 and Family Dollar (now owned
by Dollar Tree) $75,000 as part of a CPSC crackdown on
the dangerous practice.
Santa Claus may put lumps of coal in some children’s stockings, but
unscrupulous corporations can do a lot worse.