405,000 toys recalled in latest lead paint scare

Cars were made in China, no illnesses have been reported yet

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updated 8:19 a.m. ET Nov. 8, 2007

WASHINGTON - More than 405,000 children’s products made in China, most of them toy cars, were recalled Wednesday for containing dangerous levels of lead, a government safety group announced.

The recall includes about 380,000 Pull-Back Action Toy Cars imported by Dollar General Merchandising Inc. of Goodlettsville, Tenn., and 7,500 Dragster and Funny Car toys imported by International Sourcing Ltd. of Springfield, Mo.

Four of the recalled products were imported by Schylling Associates Inc. of Rowley, Mass., including the items Duck Family Collectable Wind-Up Toy, Dizzy Ducks Music Box, “Robot 2000” collectable tin robot and Winnie-the-Pooh Spinning Top. The company recalled another 66,000 spinning tops Aug. 22.

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Representatives from Schylling Associates Inc. were not immediately available for comment.

Wednesday’s recalls include about 7,200 “Big Red” Wagons imported by Northern Tool & Equipment Co. of Burnsville, Minn. Totaling about 405,700, the recalled children’s products all had excessive levels of lead in their surface paint.

Although no illnesses connected to Wednesday’s recalls have been reported, lead is toxic if ingested by young children. Children’s products found to have more than 0.06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.

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The latest recalls follow almost weekly announcements in the past several months of lead-contaminated products imported from China, many of them toys. Julie Vallese, spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the agency and the toy industry are still performing a top-to-bottom inventory of products in the marketplace to check for lead contamination.

“There’s are billions of toys coming in. ... There’s a lot to go through,” Vallese said. “We don’t think we’ve seen the end of them. But we do feel confident the numbers will start going down.”

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