China plays with safety, put Indian kids at risk

CHILD'S PLAY: Seventy percent of the Chinese toys CNN-IBN found had high lead content.

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Suhasini Haidar

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New Delhi: Mattel Inc. on Wednesday recalled 7,000 toys in India for high levels of lead paint. But that won’t make your children any safer.

A special investigation by CNN-IBN and Toxics Link, an independent research group, carried out scientific tests and found that Chinese toys—branded and unbranded—available in the Indian market had high lead content.

“Low lead exposure for a long time can create lead-related problems, so even if some toys have lower concentration of 600 ppm (particles per million) they can pose problems for children,” said Dr Abhay Kumar, Coordinator of Toxics Link.

The investigation picked up toys, including those of famous brands like Mattel and Clemy Disney, from stores and made a shocking after scientific tests: 40 percent of the toys were made in China and 70 percent of these contained trace to heavy amounts of lead.

A rubber duck bought at a Lifestyle store contained as much as 631 ppm of lead, well above the international safety standards. (Lead level above 90 ppm in toys is considered dangerous.)

Over 70 percent of all toys sold in this country are of Chinese make but India has no safety standards for toys. The Bureau of Indian Standards does have voluntary guidelines but they are seldom followed.

“As long as it’s voluntary, no manufacturer is interested in picking it up & ensuring quality as a result there are unsafe toys in the market, says consumer affairs activist Pushpa Girimaji.

“Countries like US have a consumer protection body which is monitoring this and also working with the manufacturers to make sure that the consumer is safe we don't have any such arrangement,” says Ravi Agarwal, chairperson of Toxic Links.

The Indian toy industry has a turnover of Rs 2,400 crore rupees a year but seems tight-fisted when it comes to spending on safety.