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Group Warns Consumers About Dangerous Toys, In Annual 'Trouble In Toyland' Report

Abukar Adan
/
Maine Public
Dr. Erin Pointek, primary care doctor, talks about dangerous toys.

US PIRG, a public interest research group, today released its annual report about dangerous toys, as the biggest holiday shopping days of the year approach.

At a news conference at Mercy Hospital in Portland, members of the group said U.S. PIRG's 32nd annual Trouble in Toyland report found that, despite improvements in product safety regulations, dangerous toys remain on the market.

Dr. Erin Piontek, a primary care doctor at Mercy, says among the biggest concerns are toys with small parts.

"Obviously, babies and kids will do anything with toys, not their intended use," Piontek said. "So they'll stick small parts in their mouth. They'll ingest those, in their ears, in their nose. We see a lot of that in primary care. The biggest concern obviously is ingestion and we're trying to avoid that."

Other hazardous toys include lead-laden fidget spinners and data-collecting dolls.

Privacy-invasive toys like the "My Friend Kayla" doll, which have been banned in Germany for privacy violations, raise new and complex challenges. But event organizer Jacqueline Guyol says she's pleased with the Consumer Product Safety Commission's progress.  

"They have been doing a better job and becoming more rigorous with recalling toys," Guyol says, "but it's something that the CPSC needs to be continuously looking at - toys and recalling them when they are found unsafe."