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IF WE CAN SAVE JUST ONE CHILD...By Charlie SykesMIDDLETON, Wis. -- As police respond to traumatic events, sometimes children can be found sitting to the side of the emergency, feeling lonely and scared. For years, officers have comforted them with stuffed animals, but that's now changing.
Laws typically are meant to protect people and to make sure they're safe. The new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act does that too, but it has law enforcement officers rethinking handing out stuffed animals because of the chemicals they might contain. Mueller said that he used to hand out Teddy bears or other stuffed toys to children. Now, Middleton police are using the books to make sure they're in compliance with new federal regulations.
"One of the reasons for that is we get older toys that come in and they're perfectly fine to give out, but we don't know if they were made under the new requirements," he said. |
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Sunday, Nov 1 at 7:13 AM Ulla Seckler wrote ...
How about making sure our water that we drink is safe? Do you know what is in your drinking water? Why worry about some stuffed toys when the water we consume every day is full of lead, hormones, and other unsafe chemicals!
31407857 Flag for moderationSunday, Oct 18 at 2:27 PM Henry wrote ...
How about the book version of "An Inconvenient Truth"? - that should comfort them - if not, at least they'll grow up to be good little enviro-wackos
30759348 Flag for moderationSunday, Oct 18 at 7:06 AM Dispatcher wrote ...
Let's give them a book about Heather's two Mommies.
30746568 Flag for moderationSaturday, Oct 17 at 6:37 PM Wendy Jo wrote ...
My mom and I have made teddy bears for years and donated them to police and fire departments. For the record, we never used lead or other heavy metals when making them. However, we will probably have to stop making/donating them now - how exactly will this save children?
30732862 Flag for moderationSaturday, Oct 17 at 7:27 AM Eric H wrote ...
Locke and Bob, not one child died in 2007 from any one of those recalled toys that were **already illegal under existing law**. A child died a few years ago from lead poisoning from a charm included in a pair of adult shoes, but nobody died from any of the Mattel toys. Furthermore, Mattel later admitted that the vast majority of those problems were design flaws, not Chinese contractor substitutions. Finally, guess which self-testing company is exempted from 3rd party testing under the CPSIA?
30713573 Flag for moderationSaturday, Oct 17 at 7:17 AM Allen wrote ...
I would so boldly offer a solution. To the good people at WTMJ and the public. Simply, research a safe Teddy Bear, one that is deemed safe enough for government guidelines. Get about a thousand of them and donate those to the area entire state police departments. Then, have the police depts. send those unregulated teddy bears to are disposal sites, so they can classify and dispose of the dangerous teddy bears.
30713278 Flag for moderationSaturday, Oct 17 at 7:13 AM Bob In Zion wrote ...
John Gault... evidently you don't watch the news much. In the last few years there have been tons of cases of imported toys exceeding (by a large amount) the permissible amount of lead allowed in them. That said, I still think that the consumer protection act is a joke, and needs to be repealed.
30713177 Flag for moderationFriday, Oct 16 at 6:06 PM John Gault wrote ...
Mr. Locke, your links do back up ENVIRONMENTAL lead poisoning, such as lead paint, lead pipes. But ZERO data on lead exposure by any toys. Obviously, lead is a problem, but I doubt it is in older children books, toys or other common toys. You need to become informed as to breath this law encompasses, even to thrift stores and garage sales. You should understand and read the law.
30696208 Flag for moderationFriday, Oct 16 at 3:42 PM LD wrote ...
Why don't we put the stuffed animals in charge? They're bound to make better decisions than the bureaucrats we have now. Americans need to cultivate a sense of perspective on what levels of chemicals constitute a real threat. The mere presence of something usually does not. So many of the tests are based on doses given to mice that, if a comparable amount was given to a human, would require an impossible level of consumption: Alar, saccharin, Red Dye No. 14, etc. There's too much fear mongering.
30691112 Flag for moderationFriday, Oct 16 at 2:37 PM Locke wrote ...
John - The CDC has volumes of data on lead poisoning: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts13.html and http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/ This isn't something irrational or that lacks scientific confirmation (like autism & vaccinations). If you believe lead poisoning is not real...well we'll have to just agree to disagree and our conversation need not continue.
30688053 Flag for moderationFriday, Oct 16 at 11:28 AM John Gault wrote ...
Locke, you are uninformed. Please show me where children (plural, not the isolated case or so) documented have been sicked because of the chemicals or substances in the toys. I am not talking about a toy in which is poorly designed. Where? Decreasing the amount of lead and its related compounds will NOT make children safer or more healthy.
30678073 Flag for moderationFriday, Oct 16 at 9:46 AM Locke wrote ...
Can we hold on a second here.Some perspective? Understand that the real problem here is that our government has failed miserably for years.The Product Safety folks have been criminally negligent.Lead in kids toys, deadly baby formula, sulfer releasing drywall..on and on.The fact that actually stepping up safety standards might make things more difficult for firefighters handing out free toys is unfortunate. But it pales in comparison to the thousands made sick or killed from dangerous products.
30672037 Flag for moderationFriday, Oct 16 at 9:38 AM John Gault wrote ...
I cannot stress enough --- VOTE. See http://overlawyered.com/ for more information on this stupid law - The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act. Know that it was aimed at Hasbro, but they received an in house testing exemption, but no one else has received. Their costs aren't going up much from testing, but everyone else's testing will go up.
30671483 Flag for moderationFriday, Oct 16 at 9:22 AM WA Dan wrote ...
While it is obvious that larger government intrusion on individual freedoms is the direction we are headed, it is important to remember the future has not been written. You can stop things like this from happening. You can take steps to get legislation like this stopped and repealed. Get yourself, friends, family involved. Speak out against government that sets these laws and regulations on you. Government works for US. Unite and rise up. ALL Elections matter.
30670523 Flag for moderationFriday, Oct 16 at 9:11 AM BV wrote ...
...Well look at the bright side. there will be thousands of new government jobs created to enforce these new regulations, which will require our taxes to be raised and.... ohhhhh wait.... guess that's not such a bright side to it.
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