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08-08-2007, 09:15 PM
Tribune test leads to Thomas & Friends top recall
By Maurice Possley and Mike Oneal | Tribune staff reporters
5:09 PM CDT, August 8, 2007
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E-mail Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback text size: The makers of a Thomas & Friends spinning top on Wednesday initiated a voluntary recall of the product, prompted by a Tribune test that found a painted wooden handle on one of the toys contained 40 times the legal limit for lead.
The toymaker, Schylling Associates, of Rowley, Mass., said the recall would cover 24,000 Chinese-made tops shipped by the company between June 2001 and July 2002. A Schylling executive said the company also is investigating whether lead contaminated two more of its products, a similar toy called a Circus Top and a number of metal pails with wooden handles.
"It's very clear we have a product we sold that had lead in it,'' said Jim Leonard, Schylling's chief operating officer. "It's not something we intended or wanted to have happen. We're very frustrated by that."
Related Links
Why lead-tainted Chinese goods slip through
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Mattel Identifies Vendor in Toy Recall
But Leonard also revealed that the company's own records show it knew about the problem five years ago and did not initiate a recall. In researching the issue after inquiries from the Tribune, he said Schylling found a June 2002 test report showing that the Thomas & Friends top contained lead paint on its wooden handle. That led the company a month later to start shipping tops made with plastic handles instead of wooden ones.
Asked why the company did not recall the toys five years ago, Leonard said, "I can't answer that. ... I had just started here."
Schylling is just the latest toy company forced to recall lead-tainted products made in China. It is far smaller than the recent lead-related recalls of nearly 1 million Fisher-Price toys and 1.5 million Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys. But the Schylling case illustrates how the government's reliance on companies policing themselves can leave consumers unwittingly vulnerable to unsafe products.
It also shows how even tainted toys that haven't been shipped in years can remain in circulation through the burgeoning retail bazaar that flourishes on the Internet.
One of the most common hazards is lead, a toxic metal banned in most products in the U.S. three decades ago but still a commonly used raw material in factories overseas. It can cause brain damage if ingested by children, lowering I.Q.s and causing developmental delays. The Centers for Disease Control says there is no safe level of lead exposure for children and recommends that all children be screened once a year, especially those who are 6 months to 6 years old.
Tribune recently had the Schylling top tested by the Hygienic Laboratory of the University of Iowa as part of a broader examination of the hazards hidden among popular children's products.
When informed of the test results on his company's Thomas & Friends top, Schylling CEO David Schylling said he was "amazed" at the finding.
But one of Schylling's former customers, a Houston man who operates an online toy store called Retro Toys, said he had complained to Schylling officials for many months that the Thomas tops as well as the pails and Circus Tops had handles covered with paint containing lead.
Gary Giddings, owner of Retro Toys, told the Tribune in an email that his firm had filed a complaint with the Consumer Product Safety Commission last year for lead paint. He said he had done his own testing of Thomas tops, as well as Thomas pails and Circus tops and found that some of them tested positive for lead.
Though Leonard said Giddings had never complained about lead paint on any items, he held out the possibility that Schylling would have to recall the metal pails because of tainted wooden handles. "I think we had a problem with those,'' Leonard said.
In the wake of the lead paint disclosures, he said Schylling is increasing the testing of its products. The company had tested products only when they first went into production, he said. Now the company is testing every time it places an order for a particular product.
Leonard also said the company is planning to use a third-party testing company to perform tests during production to try to catch problems at that stage of the process.
"We work very hard to get this right, and it's been very difficult for us," he said, contending that "the real issue is that the Chinese are allowed to make lead paint."
Nevertheless, Leonard acknowledged that it becomes an American company's concern as soon as the products test positive for lead, as the Thomas & Friends top did in 2002. "It clearly is our problem," he said.
More articles
By Maurice Possley and Mike Oneal | Tribune staff reporters
5:09 PM CDT, August 8, 2007
Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback text size: The makers of a Thomas & Friends spinning top on Wednesday initiated a voluntary recall of the product, prompted by a Tribune test that found a painted wooden handle on one of the toys contained 40 times the legal limit for lead.
The toymaker, Schylling Associates, of Rowley, Mass., said the recall would cover 24,000 Chinese-made tops shipped by the company between June 2001 and July 2002. A Schylling executive said the company also is investigating whether lead contaminated two more of its products, a similar toy called a Circus Top and a number of metal pails with wooden handles.
"It's very clear we have a product we sold that had lead in it,'' said Jim Leonard, Schylling's chief operating officer. "It's not something we intended or wanted to have happen. We're very frustrated by that."
Related Links
Why lead-tainted Chinese goods slip through
Chinese toy jewelry production Photos
Mattel Identifies Vendor in Toy Recall
But Leonard also revealed that the company's own records show it knew about the problem five years ago and did not initiate a recall. In researching the issue after inquiries from the Tribune, he said Schylling found a June 2002 test report showing that the Thomas & Friends top contained lead paint on its wooden handle. That led the company a month later to start shipping tops made with plastic handles instead of wooden ones.
Asked why the company did not recall the toys five years ago, Leonard said, "I can't answer that. ... I had just started here."
Schylling is just the latest toy company forced to recall lead-tainted products made in China. It is far smaller than the recent lead-related recalls of nearly 1 million Fisher-Price toys and 1.5 million Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys. But the Schylling case illustrates how the government's reliance on companies policing themselves can leave consumers unwittingly vulnerable to unsafe products.
It also shows how even tainted toys that haven't been shipped in years can remain in circulation through the burgeoning retail bazaar that flourishes on the Internet.
One of the most common hazards is lead, a toxic metal banned in most products in the U.S. three decades ago but still a commonly used raw material in factories overseas. It can cause brain damage if ingested by children, lowering I.Q.s and causing developmental delays. The Centers for Disease Control says there is no safe level of lead exposure for children and recommends that all children be screened once a year, especially those who are 6 months to 6 years old.
Tribune recently had the Schylling top tested by the Hygienic Laboratory of the University of Iowa as part of a broader examination of the hazards hidden among popular children's products.
When informed of the test results on his company's Thomas & Friends top, Schylling CEO David Schylling said he was "amazed" at the finding.
But one of Schylling's former customers, a Houston man who operates an online toy store called Retro Toys, said he had complained to Schylling officials for many months that the Thomas tops as well as the pails and Circus Tops had handles covered with paint containing lead.
Gary Giddings, owner of Retro Toys, told the Tribune in an email that his firm had filed a complaint with the Consumer Product Safety Commission last year for lead paint. He said he had done his own testing of Thomas tops, as well as Thomas pails and Circus tops and found that some of them tested positive for lead.
Though Leonard said Giddings had never complained about lead paint on any items, he held out the possibility that Schylling would have to recall the metal pails because of tainted wooden handles. "I think we had a problem with those,'' Leonard said.
In the wake of the lead paint disclosures, he said Schylling is increasing the testing of its products. The company had tested products only when they first went into production, he said. Now the company is testing every time it places an order for a particular product.
Leonard also said the company is planning to use a third-party testing company to perform tests during production to try to catch problems at that stage of the process.
"We work very hard to get this right, and it's been very difficult for us," he said, contending that "the real issue is that the Chinese are allowed to make lead paint."
Nevertheless, Leonard acknowledged that it becomes an American company's concern as soon as the products test positive for lead, as the Thomas & Friends top did in 2002. "It clearly is our problem," he said.
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