You don't have to buy American, just don't buy Chinese

Okay, I’m getting a little tired of seeing these toy recalls lately. What irks me so much is not that toys are being recalled in general, but who is making these products and why they’re being recalled in the first place!

Fisher Price recalled close to a million toys back in August, and the most recent recall comes from Wal-Mart this month. What is so infuriating about these recalls that they are results of high lead content in toys. Lead. In toys. Haven’t we known for almost 30 years now that LEAD IN TOYS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA?! Or have these Chinese vendors forgotten?

I don’t know if the same vendors are responsible for painting the Fisher Price and Wal-mart brand toys. But it would be worse if they weren’t. Because now there’s not one idiot rogue toy-paining company in China, but now there are at least two.

Fisher Price promises a thorough investigation and tighter controls on their already strict quality control standards, and they will no longer be accepting shipments from that vendor.

Also this year, a toy company called RC2 was forced to recall Thomas & Friends toys that were on the market; Target had to recall several hundred Happy Giddy Gardening Tools and Children's Sunny Patch Chairs sold in stores from August 2006 through August 2007 and Jo-Ann stores recalled over 16,000 toy rakes sold at their store this year. In addition, 150 Bookmarks by Antioch Co. were recalled; Albert’s retail store announced this past Thursday that they will be recalling50,000 skull halloween buckets ; CKI recalled toy decorating sets sold at Toys r us, and Riddell recalled mini Jeff Gordon helmets which were being sold at Academy and other sporting goods stores.

All of these recalls were due to excessive amounts of lead either in the base product, or in the paint.

All of the recalled products were manufactured in China.

And who makes paint with lead in it, anymore, anyways??!!

As if the toys and lead paint weren’t enough of a problem for China, several pet foods were recalled because they contained contaminates which were sickening and sometimes, even killing the animals who ate them, and 450,000 vehicle tires in NJ were recalled because their “Chinese manufacturer had stopped including a safety feature that prevented the tires from separating.” Stopped. As in, consciously discontinued adding a SAFETY FEATURE on the tires. Oh, and how about this- Chinese authorities recalled TAINTED LEUKEMIA DRUGS earlier this year.

This is, in no way, a complete list of recalled items coming from China this year. You can visit The federal recall and consumer safety website and search around for more information.

What is the government planning on doing to prevent this from happening again?

Well, first of all, the head of China’s FDA was beheaded.

Yep, chopped off- gone (that was a decision made by Chinese authorities, not ours).

That may be a little extreme, but it is definitely a great example to his predecessors.
“See what happens when you screw up and let tainted cancer meds and contaminated pet food through the gates? You kiss your noggin good-bye. Forever.”
I know that would motivate me to get my shit together!

China says it will cooperate with US officials to resolve this problem.

For me, it’s too little, too late. In a statement made by the safety commission’s spokesperson, Julie Vallese, “China is responsible for 60 percent of all commission recalls so far this year. Of about 30 children's products recalled, all but two have been made in China.”

28 children's product recalls were manufactured in China. In this year alone, and the year's not even over yet!! 10 months. 28 recalls in 10 months coming from China.
For just children's products.

Can everyone say "embargo"??