Mattel and Fisher-Price to pay $2.3 million for lead paint in toys

Mattel and its Fisher-Price subsidiary agreed today to pay a $2.3-million civil penalty for importing and selling toys that contained excessive levels of lead, a violation of a 30-year-old federal ban on lead paint in toys.

The penalty is part of an agreement the companies reached with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and stems from a series of recalls in 2007 involving about 95 Mattel and Fisher-Price toy models, including Barbie doll accessories and Go Diego Go products.

Mattel, of El Segundo, and Fisher-Price, of East Aurora, N.Y., deny having knowingly violated the law.

The commission said the civil penalty was the highest for violations involving importation or distribution of a regulated product and is the third-highest of any kind in the agency’s history.

Mattel imported as many as 900,000 toys from September 2006 to August 2007 that violated federal rules on lead levels and distributed most of them to retail stores for sale to U.S. consumers, the commission said. Fisher-Price imported as many as 1.1 million non-compliant toys from July 2006 to August 2007; most of the toys were distributed to retail stores for sale to consumers.

Mattel said in a statement today that it had taken several steps to enhance its product compliance procedures “to confirm that every Mattel toy is safe for children.”

“Today’s settlement announcement by the U.S. CPSC resolves Mattel’s outstanding issues with the agency related to certain matters that arose in 2007,” the toy maker said. “Mattel continues to be vigilant and rigorous in ensuring the quality and safety of our toys.”

Lead can be toxic if ingested and is considered particularly dangerous for children, whose brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the effects of lead. The consequences can include learning disabilities and decreased intelligence.

-- Andrea Chang

Photo: About 95 Mattel and Fisher-Price toy models, including this Go Diego Go toy, were determined to have contained excessive levels of lead. Credit: Consumer Product Safety Commission

Comments

[Sharon McEachern]

In addition to the $2.3 million Mattel is paying in civil penalities, last December the toymaker agreed to pay $12 million to 39 states to settle claims that it shipped toys tainted with lead paint. These two amounts may sound like a lot of money, but look again. Mattel is the world's largest toy manufacturer and last year had $6 billion in revenues. The Barbie line alone accounts for 80 percent of the company's profits. These monies are no punishment for Mattel. They are a mere drop in Barbie's beach bucket.

Ethic Soup blog has a good article on Mattel and its tsunami of toxic toys at:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2008/12/toy-giant-mattel-settles-with-38-states-for-tainted-leadpainted-toys.html