By: Charles Bowen A cruel joke in the weeks after the holiday season is the discovery that some of the new toys the children received simply don't work as advertised. That's bad enough, but what if a toy actually causes harm? Hundreds of them do. And while responsible manufacturers diligently recall defective toys, how do you as a journalist keep tabs on what is being identified as broken -- or even dangerous -- toys?
Say it with me, friends: The Internet! SafeChild.net has just rolled out an excellent new tool for identifying dangerous toys. The Toy Recall Database, backed by the Consumer Federation of America Foundation, allows you to conduct almost any type of search of 350 major toy recalls by the CPSC and/or toy manufacturers during the past 12 years. With this database, you can search for recalls based on:
* The age of the child for which a gift is being purchased.
* The type of hazard cited upon which the recall is based.
* The type of toy involved.
* The year of the recall.
* And/or the name of the manufacturer.
In many cases, pictures of the toys in question are available as a guide. "Unfortunately, too many parents believe that all toys on the market have been tested and are safe. This is not true," says SafeChild.net Project Manager Susan Winn in an online statement. "Toys are not tested by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and many are not tested by anyone besides the manufacturer unless there is a problem reported with the toy. Although there are standards for toy manufacturers, they often require only minimum levels of performance and fail to address all known hazards."
To use the resource, visit
http://www.safechild.net/toyrecalldatabase. Fill in as many of the search boxes as you wish. For instance, suppose a reader called to ask about a gift his child received at a birthday party from a well-meaning aunt. "Is this cotton candy machine safe?" he wonders. "It looks like it could jam and overheat." You call up the database and simply enter the words "cotton candy" in the keyword box and discover, sure enough, that the machines were made in China and sold in the U.S. nationwide between September 2001 and April 2002 before being recalled for a potential fire hazard.
Other considerations for using the Toy Recall Database in your writing and editing:
1. The site will save you some time if you're looking for frequently-searched toys. Scroll the introductory page for its links to popular searches. At this writing, these included all recalls for bicycles, dolls, and toys for children age 3 or younger.
2. If you write about the database in your news columns, you might want to point out that the site also has general safety tips for parents and others buying toys, including checking age labels, avoiding choking hazards, and how to check for the sturdiness of a toy's construction.
3. Site operators say creation of the database was sparked by the fact that the most popular feature of its site has already been recall information. "With more than 9 million hits to date," says an online statement, "including 1 million each in October and November, it became clear than parents are crying out for critical toy safety recall information."
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