The holiday season is just around the corner and shoppers are getting ready to splurge on Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. But before you start throwing toys into your cart you should probably check out the 27th Annual Trouble in Toyland Survey which names the most dangerous toys of the year.
The survey is released every year by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and includes toys that could be hazardous to kids. This year’s list includes a “potentially dangerous magnet toy, a bowling game that is a choking hazard and a key chain rattle that may be harmful to little ears.”
Nasima Hossain, the public health advocate for the group, said:
“We should be able to trust that the toys we buy are safe. However, until that’s the case, parents need to watch out for common hazards when shopping for toys.”
The annual report seeks to get dangerous toys off of store shelves. According to PIRG, more than 150 toys have been recalled over the years after being singled out on the Trouble In Toyland survey. This year, however, the group found that toys were safer than ever.
Hossain added:
“The main trend that we saw this year was that we didn’t find as many toxic toys as we thought we would.”
PIRG cited a Dora the Explorer guitar for being too loud, a Morphobot action figure that exceeded legal lead limits, and several small dollar store toys that contained small pieces considered to be choking hazards. The group also warned parents against magnet toys like Buckeyballs saying that there were more than 1700 emergency room visits between 2009 and 2011 due to the ingestion of high-powered magnets.
Despite the Trouble in Toyland report the Toy Industry Association insists that nearly all of the toys being sold this year are safe.
Stacy Leistner, vice president of communications for the association, said:
“Safety is our top priority all year. (The Trouble In Toyland report is a) headlines cry for caution but the fine print clarifies that most of the products on their list actually comply with the strict toy safety standards that are already in place in the U.S. Our companies are manufacturing to current regulations.”
Leistner added that the toy industry has a pretty good track record considering that there are more than 3 billion toys sold every year in the United States.
