So many questions, so few answers. Of course we want the products we sell to be safe for children. However, the only companies that will suffer are the small shops that will be forced to raise prices and drive buyers to big box retailers.

A recent article in the L.A. Times talked about places like Goodwill and the Salvation Army not accepting or selling kids toys and clothing. Again, is the onus on the reseller or the manufacturer? The Times call half a dozen resellers and only one had even heard about the new testing laws.

Most of the posts on this thread had good points; the one that irked me however was BdgBill who said, “wood toys don’t do crap.” Bill should have qualified his statement meaning older kids don’t like wood toys. Young kids love building blocks and other “basic” toys that keep them occupied for hours instead of TV or video games.

Want to talk about mercury poisoning? Do you know what brand name thimerosal used to be sold under when we were kids? Merthiolate! Yes, that red stuff that used to sting so badly on cuts and scrapes. Our parents used to slather that on us at every opportunity.

Hmm. I wonder how much smarter the country would be if we hadn’t all been so exposed to mercury as kids…

>>It just made my blood boil.

Why? If most people got the vaccine, most people didn’t get measles, right?

They might also come up with a list of tested materials that can be used in toys so that the toy doesn’t have to be tested.

Interior wall paint has already been tested for example.

In my view all this testing is a complete waste anyway. The answer on the item sent to be tested will always be no.

If the government watch dogs don’t occasionally pull out something from the stores and check it somebody is going to do a substitution and you are back with lead in toys.

All the law should have said is that toys will on occasion be tested and if any meaningful amount of lead is found in them they will be recalled and disposed of in a safe manner at the makers’ expense.

You don’t trust industry to police itself unless you are brain dead.

Um, Congress did it with banking, They’ve already done this once with toys. Nobody has a clue where the billions we are spending to bail out banks is going. Has Congress learned anything?

No. They are still on the take and voting against the best interest of the people that put them in office.

Want a good example? Yesterday I listened to the latest This American Life program on NPR titled “370: Ruining It for the Rest of Us”. In act 1, they discuss the recent outbreak of a measles infection in San Diego caused by some parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated.

It just made my blood boil. The selfishness and paranoia of the the parents who endanger the lives of all the other children in their city because of a perceived risk from the vaccination. They stupidly trade the miniscule risk of problems from the vaccination on one child for a major risk of mass infection of a serious disease for all children. It just makes you wonder how on earth these parents managed to live long enough to procreate themselves. You can’t help but think they they feel that the rest of the world is there solely for their own little prodigy, and to hell with every one else’s children.

Starting all the way with the Dept of Agriculture and the railroad commissions.

“Too many defective people are surviving into adulthood.”

Hard to argue with that.

I think I need a government bail-out.