Companies Fined $500,000 for Marketing Toxic Toys

Nine U.S. companies who manufacture, import, or sell children’s products are being hit with a total of $500,000 in fines for marketing toys that violate a federal ban on lead paint.

The products, which were recalled in 2007 and 2008, included toys, children’s metal jewelry, metal water bottles, pens, pencil pouches, sunglasses, and Halloween pails and baskets, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in announcing the fines today.

The items were found to contain paint or other surface coatings that contained levels of lead in excess of government standards. One of the products contained surface coatings that contained nearly 60 percent lead, the CPSC said.

Items involved in today’s fines included metal necklace pendants, Super Wheels cars, a wooden pull along learning blocks wagon, novelty pens for Christmas, Halloween, and other holidays, and metal water bottles with images of teddy bears, lady bugs, and other animals printed on the sides.

In 1978, the U.S. government enacted a ban on toys and other children’s products that contain more than 0.06 percent lead, measured by weight, in paints and surface coatings.

When ingested into the body, lead can be toxic and result in severe, even deadly medical complications, particularly in young children.

The fines issued today are just the latest in a series of such penalties against makers of children’s toys and products. In June, a California company was ordered to pay $665,000 in fines for importing products that violated the same ban on lead levels in paints and surface coatings. The company, OKK Trading of Commerce, Ca., was accused of violating federal laws regulating lead in children’s products for several years.

The following companies must pay the amounts listed in fines to the federal government as part of today’s lead-paint penalties, the CPSC said:

• Cardinal Distributing Co. Inc., of Baltimore, Md., ($100,000)

• Dollar General Corp., of Goodlettsville, Tenn., ($100,000)

• Family Dollar Stores Inc., of Matthews, N.C., ($75,000)

• Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., of Oklahoma City, Okla., ($50,000)

• First Learning Company Ltd., of Hong Kong, ($50,000)

• Michaels Stores Inc., of Irving, Texas, ($45,000)

• A&A Global Industries Inc., of Cockeysville, Md., ($40,000)

• Raymond Geddes & Co, of Baltimore, Md., ($40,000)

• Downeast Concepts Inc., of Yarmouth, Maine, ($30,000)

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