Getting the Lead Out
Why recalls persist despite industry progress
By Fred Mills-Winkler -- Gifts and Dec, 3/1/2010 12:00:00 AM
In December 2008, a new era in toy safety began with mandatory third-party testing to measure the presence of lead in paint and surface coatings. That was quickly followed by new restrictions on permissible lead and lead paint content in toys and children's products. These cornerstone provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 have been accompanied by a decline in lead-related recalls, but they have not yet wiped the lead slate clean.
In January and February of 2010, for example, there were five products recalled because of excessive lead levels. The culprits included a metal connector on a jewelry cord, a red plastic dot in a cloth book, and the paints on a wooden bead bracelet, a toy pinto horse and a military action figure. The number of items involved in each recall ranged from 2,100 to 252,000, affecting some of the country's biggest retailers.
Yet, as noted by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum at the United States-China Consumer Product Safety Summit last October, the number of recalls involving violations of lead standards fell from 40 to 15 between fiscal years 2008 and 2009. Children's product recalls for all reasons fell by 50 percent during the same period.
(This period, of course, coincides with the activation of lower lead ceilings on children's products mandated by the CPSIA: 600 ppm on overall lead content as of Feb. 10, 2009, and then 300 ppm on total lead content and 90 ppm on lead in paint and surface coatings as of Aug. 14, 2009.)
Tenenbaum's remarks at the summit indicate that she gives credit both to the CPSIA and to other new initiatives triggered by the 2007 toy recall crisis. She specifically cited the closing of thousands of Chinese factories that were not complying with lead limits, Chinese improvements in quality control, and U.S. efforts to educate toy makers in China about U.S. safety requirements.
Why, then, are there lingering lead issues? And how can retailers help the industry reduce the number of reputation-damaging recalls even further? Aside from the fact that no system is perfect and that adherence to any regulation is never 100 percent, the problems can be traced to several specific sources.
Inventory on-hand
Some of the products involved in the recalls may have been manufactured before the CPSIA tightened the noose on lead regulations. Although products that did not meet the new parameters should have been removed from store or warehouse shelves after Feb. 10, 2009, that may not have happened for reasons ranging from an inadvertent oversight to a failure to retest products when the lead standards changed. Since the CPSC ruled that existing inventory must adhere to the new lead limits regardless of the manufacture date, older non-compliant products that are still in the pipeline may be subject to recall if the problem is detected.
Supplier controls
Even the most meticulous manufacturing operation can be tripped up by a glitch in screening raw materials or evaluating subcontractors. In the case of paint or other raw materials, the issue may be a failure to receive or examine test reports on every shipment. There can, of course, be variations from lot to lot. In the case of moldings (with potential lead in the colorants as well as phthalates in the plasticizers) or other items supplied by subcontractors, the snag may be a failure to conduct periodic on-site facility inspections and quality assurance program reviews that can uncover risky sourcing or manufacturing practices. Neglecting these procedures even once can let products with too much lead slip through.
Testing frequency
Like any manufacturing quality check, a lead inspection is a snapshot of a product that rolls off the assembly line at a specific point in time. When talking about production quantities in the tens or hundreds of thousands, there is more than a reasonable risk that a product that meets the CPSIA's lead standards early in the production run will fall out of compliance at a later point in the run if the factory does not have appropriate material and process controls in place. The logical solution is to perform lead tests at multiple intervals during a large run, but that has not yet been adopted as standard industry practice.
Incomplete implementation
While the new limits on lead content in children's products are etched in stone, independent third-party testing by an accredited laboratory is currently required only for lead in paint and other surface coatings. The third-party testing requirement for lead content in substrates that was originally due to go into effect in February 2009 has received two stays of enforcement, most recently in mid-December 2009, to address industry concerns about the aggressive timetable and lack of complete CPSC guidance on a variety of issues. Mandatory third-party testing for substrates now is scheduled to take effect on Feb. 10, 2011. The delay leaves a hole in the CPSIA-constructed safety net that presumably will help strengthen industry defenses against lead recalls when it is plugged.
What retailers can do
While retailers have no liability for products that violate the new lead thresholds based on assurance of compliance from the manufacturers and/or importers, it is in the best interests of the retail community to promote compliance by manufacturers and importers in order to help restore public confidence in toy safety. This can be achieved by asking for third-party test reports on lead in substrates and lead in paint (some suppliers will have both even though independent testing for lead in substrates is not yet required), or in-house reports if independent documentation is not available on overall lead content. If the manufacturer or importer cannot commit to supplying reports at the time of order placement, the retailer should consider having their own testing performed or cancelling the order.
Clearly, lead remains a concern, but major progress has been made since the 2007 recalls that gave some of the world's most recognized toy brands a black eye. Lead-related recalls may never vanish completely, but there are far fewer of them today than three years ago. With the upcoming enforcement of the delayed testing restrictions and a possible further reduction in permissible lead content in substrates to 100 ppm in August 2011, the industry will continue to face regulatory challenges. But the impact on public safety—not to mention public opinion—will be the reward.
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