Consumer Protection In The News

SAN DIEGO – Moe and Linda Rosenberg will be heading back to the store with some of the Christmas presents they bought for their six-month-old grandson.

That's because two of the four toys the University City couple bought tested positive for lead Tuesday at a community event called to draw attention to unsafe toys.

“It's scary,” Linda Rosenberg said, after a clear lead-testing stick was rubbed on the wood and plastic toys.

Parents and grandparents brought toys to the Bayside Community Center in Linda Vista, where officials outlined a consumer advocacy group's annual survey on toy safety, dubbed “Trouble in Toyland.”

A CALPIRG spokeswoman said lead in toys and jewelry marketed to children are a concern, as are magnetic toys and small toys that pose a choking hazard. The group is urging federal lawmakers to pass product safety measures such as HR 3691, which would boost funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission and ban all but trace amounts of lead in toys.

“No government agency tests toys before they go on store shelves,” spokeswoman Erin Steva said.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, said she worries when she buys toys for her own grandchildren, who are 4 and 6, especially after all the toy recalls this year.

“The safest toy you can give a child is a book,” she said.

After the news conference, parents and grandparents brought stuffed animals, trucks and other toys to a table where a community organizer with the Environmental Health Coalition ran a crayon-like stick against the metal, wood and fabric. If the stick turned dark, the toy had lead in it, organizer Luz Palomino said.

Some parents immediately threw away toys that failed the test. Others said they planned to toss them out later, so their children would not get upset at the center.

As for the Rosenbergs, they were happy that at least two of the toys intended for their grandson passed the test. They planned to return the other two and tell the store manager the reason why.