LAWFUEL – The contaminated toy mess continues with the news that Mattel Inc is to destroy over 160,000 hazardous toys in Mexico Wednesday after they were found to contain harmful quantities of lead.
Reuters have reported that the toys were recalled from Mexican stores over the past few weeks, including dolls and toy cars, were thrown into a giant crushing machine outside Mexico City to become fuel for a cement-making oven.
Mattel Mexico’s spokesman Fernando Gonzalez said the recent toy recalls in Mexico, the United States and Europe had cost the company $40 million worldwide. “But that is secondary; children’s safety is priceless,” he added.
Mattel had recalled over 170,000 Mexican-made toy kitchens sold in the United States and Europe in early November because small pieces posed a choking hazard to young children.
Millions of Chinese-made toys, including 21 million sold by Mattel, have been recalled worldwide recently due to excessive levels of lead paint and other unsafe components.
