Mattel Gets Pass On Independent Toy Safety Checks

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(04-23) 15:04 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The nation's biggest toy maker, Mattel Inc., is getting another exemption on federal safety rules even as smaller companies struggle with testing costs imposed after a rash of Mattel toy recalls in 2007.

Under the law passed after the recalls, the makers of children's products must perform independent third-party tests for lead, lead paint and other potential dangers.

On Friday, however, the Consumer Product Safety Commission voted unanimously to approve Mattel's request to use two more of its own company laboratories for the third-party checks on its toys.

CPSC said Mattel was able to show that its in-house testing would provide equal or greater consumer safety protection than an outside lab.

Mattel's Lisa Marie Bongiovanni said the company has a rigorous testing program, but that it also continues to send some of its products to outside labs for testing.

Consumer advocate Don Mays expressed concern about letting companies do their own testing.

"It's a little bit like the fox guarding the henhouse," said Mays, senior director of product safety at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. "There is the potential for conflict of interest."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/04/23/national/w121854D12.DTL

[Odin2005]

1. Big Business has completely corrupted the regulatory apparatus!

:grr: