Last year, China also was the source of 81% of the counterfeit goods seized by Customs officials at ports of entry in the United States -- products that typically are not made according to the standards on the labels they are copying (Lipton 3). In September of 2007, Mr. Stone, a wildlife pathologist, and his daughter discovered the hazardous levels of lead in dozens of children's necklaces and bracelets sold at stores like Big Lots and Michaels after they tested children's jewelry Montana had bought or received as birthday gifts in Mr. Stone's lab in New York's Department of Environmental Conservation in Stonefield, NY. There were 56 pieces which contained high levels of lead, out of 75 pieces of jewelry tested (Story 1).

These folks are our eyes and ears and can catch stuff as it hits their community," said Katherine Kennedy, special deputy attorney general for Andrew Cuomo, New York attorney general, who brought the items to the attention of the Consumer Product Safety Commission after meeting with Mr. Stone (Story 1).

Michaels, Big Lots and 10 other companies signed a consent agreement with New York's attorney general, in which they agreed not to sell anything which contained elevated lead levels. The agreement will give Cuomo power to fine these companies should they violate it, a power that the Consumer Product Safety Commission dies not have. Wolfson, of the federal agency, said it welcomes tips and tries to respond quickly, but consumer groups say that consumer who have contacted the agency have received only slow responses, if any. They also claim that the agency denies problems when consumer groups raise them. Even more names of faulty products were released by the Center for Environmental Health, which frequently tests toys for hazardous lead levels. Lead was not only found in the paint, but in the vinyl material in some of the toys. Children's jewelry may also be made of cadmium, a metal which the Department of Health and Human Services has identified as potentially carcinogenic (Story 1).

Even though the products may be manufactured in countries, such as China and Mexico, where cost-cutting determines...

While retailers say that their suppliers are the ones at fault, the New York attorney general says that if the stores sell these faulty products, they will be found at fault and will be fined (Story 1).
These are items that children are supposed to be playing with," said Prescott Carlson, a founder of the Web site called "the Imperfect Parent," which tracks recalls of toys and baby products. "It should be at a point where companies in the United States that are importing these items are held liable" (Lipton 1).

Works Cited

Barnett, Megan. "Mattel to China: Sorry." Conde Nast Portfolio. 21 Sep 2007. http://search.cnn.com/search?query=mattel&type=web&sortBy=date&international=false&nt=null&currentPage=2.

CDC. "Lead Recalls: Toys." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. 2007. http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/Recalls/toys.htm.

Keithley, Carter. "Toy Info.org." Toy Industry Association, Inc. 2007. http://www.toyinfo.org/index.html?id=google.

Lawrence, Joan. "Toy Safety is Serious Business." U.S. Consumer Product Safety, Commission 2003. http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/SNEWS/MARCH_2003/lawrence_mar03.html?L+mystore+qhox8289.

Lipton, Eric S. And Barboza, David. "As more toys are recalled, trail ends in China." New York Times. 19 Jun 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/business/worldbusiness/19toys.html.

Margolies, Peter. "Your Online Resource for Recalls." Recalls. Gov. Sponsored by NHTSA, FDA, EPA, CPSC and USDA.

Story, Louise, "Citizen vigilance leads to toy recalls." New York Times. 22 Nov 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/business/22recall.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=53a874dc0f3aecea&ex=1353474000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. "Recalls and Product Safety News." Consumer Product Safety Commission. 2007. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html.