A Guide to Toy Safety

So many toys, so many toy hazards? Sometimes, that's how it is for parents. Some toys - intended to provide fun - contain safety hazards, from choking to catching fire, physical injuries to lead poisoning, and the risks from toys can be numerous. The onus is on consumers to ensure that they are aware of toy safety related issues and become informed shoppers and buyers. This guide organizes useful resources on the Web on the subject of Toy Safety.

Created by Author

Sundar Kadayam

Subject: Parenting

Tags:age appropriate toys, choking, cspc, lead poisoning, toxic chemicals, toy hazards, toy injuries, toy recalls, toy safety, unsafe toys

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Inside the Guide

Understanding Toy Safety
Safe Toys, Best Toys

Tips on Toy Safety
Safety Standards, Legislation and Health Statistics

Choosing the Right Toys
What you can do about Toy Safety

Toy Recalls and Unsafe Toys
Useful Web Resources

Understanding Toy Safety

There's a range of factors that can make toys from being the fun things they are meant to be to becoming hazards for children leading to a variety of injuries and even death. In this section are some resources that can help you understand the key issues with toy safety.

Toy Safety Overview from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_safety

Trouble in Toyland: The 2end Annual Survey of Toy Safety

http://www.uspirg.org/issues/toy-safety

While the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is a major step forward, many of its protections don’t take effect until 2009, so it’s still ‘buyer beware’ for this shopping season,” said U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock. “Worse, last week the CPSC told companies that they could keep selling toys with toxic phthalate chemicals until they ran out of them, despite the law’s clear prohibition against selling them after Feb. 10.”

HealthyToys.org - The Consumer Action Guide to Toxic Chemicals in Toys

http://www.healthytoys.org/home.php

This site has a searchable database of toxic toys! A Must-see resource before shopping for toys!

CPSC Toy Safety Publications

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/toy_sfy.html

ToyInfo.org - Toy Safety Information Web site from the Toy Industry Association

http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=TINFO_Home

Toy Industry Association - Toy Safety Information

http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Toy_Safety&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=56&ContentID=1840

Tips on Toy Safety

These excellent articles can help you get informed on how to keep toys safe for children.

USPIRG - Tips for Toy Safety

http://www.uspirg.org/issues/toy-safety/tips-for-toy-safety-07

CPSC - For Kids' safe: Think Toy Safety

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/281.html

Babycenter.com - Tips for toy safety

http://www.babycenter.com/0_tips-for-toy-safety_423.bc

W.A.T.C.H - Toy Hazards To Watch Out For

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:pUNqtVKuAOOcuM:http://money.cnn.com/2003/11/18/news/companies/dangerous_toys/story_tease.gif

National Network for Child Care - Toy Safety guide

http://www.nncc.org/Health/toy.safety.html

DrToy - Toy Safety Overview

http://www.drtoy.com/drtoys_rx/toy_safety_overview.html

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - Prevention of Injuries to children from Toys

http://www.chop.edu/consumer/your_child/condition_section_index.jsp?id=-8111

HealthyToys - Toy Safety

http://www.healthytoys.org/about.safety.php

eToys Safety Center

http://www.etoys.com/safety?_e=48178&_v=48178CE5jFIYa3554CAFDF5B

Choosing the Right Toys

There's a bewildering array of choices with toys these days. However, one of the key things you can do to ensure the safety of your children is by first selecting the toys that are appropriate for their age. But how do you deal with the fads that seem to be propped upon us every single year? Read ahead to find out.

CPSC Guide to Suitable Toys for Children 0-5 (PDF File)

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/285.pdf

Babycenter.com - Tips for toy safety (12 to 24 mo.)

http://www.babycenter.com/0_tips-for-toy-safety_1744734.bc

Babycenter.com - Tips for toy safety (ages 2-4)

http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_tips-for-toy-safety_64811.pc

CPSC Guide to Suitable Toys for Children 6-12 (PDF File)

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/286.pdf

Babycenter.com - Tips for toy safety (ages 5-8)

http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_tips-for-toy-safety_65730.pc

Babycenter.com - Age-appropriate toys (birth-36mo.)

http://www.babycenter.com/0_age-appropriate-toys_5.bc

Babycenter.com - Avoid "fad" toys, experts say

http://www.babycenter.com/204_avoid-fad-toys-experts-say_5226225.bc

Toy Recalls and Unsafe Toys

In recent months, there have been a spate of toy recalls citing various safety issues ranging from choking hazards to lead poisoning. Here are excellent resources to stay away from unsafe toys in the first place, and to be in touch with products that have been recalled.

CPSC Toy Recalls

http://www.uspirg.org/issues/toy-safety/cpsc-recalls

Find out which toys have been officially recalled by the federal consumer protection agency that oversees toy safety.

CDC Toys Lead Recalls

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/Recalls/toys.htm

USPIRG - Toy Safety Updates Archive

http://www.uspirg.org/issues/toy-safety/archive/toy-safety-updates

W.A.T.C.H - The 2007 "10 Worst Toys" List

http://www.toysafety.org/worstToyList_index.html

W.A.T.C.H - Report Card

http://www.toysafety.org/reportCard_dolls.html

Sampling of changes to toys resulting from efforts of WATCH. Use the dropdown list on this page to select different categories of toys.

Babycenter.coBabycenter.com - Toy Recalls: 7 things you can do to keep your child safem - Toy Recalls: 7 things you can do to keep your child safe

http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_toy-recalls-7-things-you-can-do-to-keep-your-child-safe_1742013.pc

Safe Toys, Best Toys

All this information may be getting you overwhelmed with fear over the safety of your toys. Fear not! There are good toys in the market and you can find them listed in these sites.

Top 10 Safe Toys

http://www.top10toys.org/

DrToy - 100 Best Toys of 2007

http://www.drtoy.com/awards/2007_3_list.php

DrToy - 10 Best Toys in Various Categories

http://www.drtoy.com/awards/2007_3_1_list.php

Safety Standards, Legislation and Health Statistics

If you want to research this subject some more, here are some useful resources on toy safety standards, legislation and injury and death statistics related to toys.

Listing of U.S. Toy Safety Standards

http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=U_S_Standards&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=64&ContentID=1844

The State of the Toy Industry and Toy-related Legislation

http://safetoys.com/index.php/stoy/articles/the_state_of_the_toy_industry_and_toy_related_legislation_2008042003/

Injury Statistics and Incidence Rates from toy-related injuries

http://www.chop.edu/consumer/your_child/condition_section_index.jsp?id=-8110

High Risk Situations related to Toys

http://www.chop.edu/consumer/your_child/condition_section_index.jsp?id=-8109

What you can do about Toy Safety

As an informed consumer, you can also act in ways that can not only help your family but others as well. Here are some resources that point the way ...