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player ready...Thomas the Tank Engine was introduced to the TV world by narrator Ringo Starr as a “cheeky little engine with six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and short stumpy dome.”
He also is turning into a big headache for RC2 Corp., an Oak Brook-based toymaker.
The company recently recalled 1.5 million Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys made in China for possible contamination with lead paint.
Now the baiduhai has learned of a complaint made about the company’s metal Thomas toys as well. A Kansas City, Mo., public health nurse who is part of the city’s lead prevention program reported finding high lead levels in an orange metal toy from RC2’s “Take Along Thomas” collection in early 2006, according to a report she filed with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
RC2 says it has no record of receiving that “consumer product incident report” from the watchdog agency, which by law has to notify a company of any complaint it receives. It also says that it has “reviewed all relevant manufacturing procedures, including those at facilities that manufacture the die-cast product line. Other than items included in the current voluntary recall, RC2 is not aware of any products which contain lead in excess of toy safety standards.”
RC2 would not say where the metal train is manufactured or whether it is made in the same facility as the wooden train set.
The CPSC, which is responsible for policing hazardous products, has not issued a warning on the metal Thomas toys. An agency spokeswoman told the Tribune she could not discuss individual incident reports or investigations.
For RC2, the huge recall of wooden trains earlier this month illustrates some of the difficulties U.S. companies have in tracking products made overseas, especially in China, a rapidly expanding exporter with a growing list of complaints about serious, sometimes life-threatening, contamination in everything from pet food additives to toothpaste to glycerin syrup.
“It’s sad to say that the ‘Made in China’ label has become a warning label for many families today,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Monday during a hearing in Chicago with the acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
From 1997 through 2006, imports under the commission’s jurisdiction more than doubled, to $600 billion.
At the same time, mainland China and Hong Kong’s share of those imported goods rose to just over 40 percent from 21 percent a decade ago. Among all recalls involving imports during 2006, goods from China represented 68 percent.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government was the sole opposition to a proposed U.S. standard limiting the amount of lead in children’s jewelry. Guo LiSheng, a government official, provided written comments saying that if the jewelry was coated, not much lead would leak out, doing “little harm to children.”
In February 2006, Julianne West, a nurse in Kansas City, paid a visit to a home because a child had tested high for levels of lead. While she was at the home, West and a colleague tested the boy’s toys with a portable lead testing device.
An orange metal toy train car tested positive. “The child had been mouthing it,” West said in the report she filed. “I advised the mother … and told her it would be best to put those toys up. It was one of his favorite toys. He was not happy about it.”
West has been a part of Kansas City’s lead poisoning prevention program for a decade. In recent years, she said, “We are finding more and more items that are a hazard. And as we are becoming more experienced, we are more suspicious and even more thorough in what we are checking.”
West says she was never contacted by the CPSC and has no way of knowing if her report was investigated.
“I never heard from anyone,” she said in an interview with the Tribune. “So when I heard about the recall, I thought it was for these. But this was a metal train, not wood.” West provided the Tribune with a copy of the complaint she filed.
Asked about West’s report, Julie Vallese, spokeswoman for the CPSC, said, “In terms of any individual incident report or any open investigation, there is nothing that I can discuss with you.”
She added that the RC2 recall “is not a closed investigation because we follow up to make sure the company is following through with the recall. … Anytime we see the presence of lead in any product, it’s a concern for us and we act on it very, very quickly.”
On June 13, RC2 announced a voluntary recall of 1.5 million wooden railway vehicles and components from its Thomas & Friends product line made between January 2005 and April 2007. Some of the paint on the toys contained lead, RC2 said.
No reports of illness
The company did not explain why the recall stretched back to toys made two years ago. It also said it had no reports of illness or injury related to the toys. The responsible manufacturing plant has been “isolated,” and “a corrective plan” has been implemented, RC2 said. Retailers have been notified to remove the products from their shelves.
Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional locomotive based on children’s books by British writer Rev. W.V. Awdry. The character was featured in a British TV series that was spun off in the U.S. as “Shining Time Station.” Thomas toys have become favorites for a generation of children, particularly boys, and parents who appreciate the books’ positive message about teamwork.
HIT Entertainment, owned by private-equity group Apax Partners, holds the rights to the Thomas brand and sells licenses to other companies to produce a variety of items.
RC2 holds two of those licenses: “Thomas & Friends” wooden railway cars and the die-cast metal “Take Along Thomas” line, which are smaller, portable toys that fit inside a sturdy play set.
The federal government banned lead in paint nearly 30 years ago, and the CPSC has been vocal in reporting about the growing number of recalled products manufactured outside of the United States.
A Tribune review of CPSC recall data shows that since January 1977, there have been 68 recalls of 9 million items because of lead paint.
More than a third of the recalls have occurred since January 2004, and 99 percent of the items were manufactured in China. India, Taiwan, Mexico and Indonesia make up the rest.
After decades of parents’ heightening concerns about the hazards of lead paint on window frames and metal blinds, the biggest lead threat to American children remains housing built before 1978.
Young children, particularly those younger than 6, are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning, which can lead to lowered IQ, behavioral problems and, in the most serious cases, retardation and death.
Despite some progress domestically, U.S. children are still at risk for this latest wave of lead contamination from abroad.
Items recalled in recent years range from baby cribs and children’s furniture to children’s clothing and toys.
Children’s jewelry is another frequent source of lead. American Girl, the popular maker and retailer of high-end dolls, recalled 180,000 pieces of jewelry in March 2006 because of concerns about lead.
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In terms of lead paint recall volume, the Thomas & Friends recall of 1.5 million items is matched only by the 1.5 million Zebco brand fishing poles recalled two years ago because of lead paint. The poles also were manufactured in China.
Joan Lawrence, vice president for standards and regulatory affairs for the Toy Industry Association, a trade group for U.S. manufacturers and importers of toys and games, said that most major manufacturers will not accept foreign toys for sale unless the sellers certify that some form of independent safety testing has been performed.
Her group, along with the Chinese government and the CPSC, has been holding seminars in China since 1996 to educate factory owners about what safety standards are expected.
To guard against substandard products, importing companies can perform various tests at different stages of the production cycle and ask for certification that the items have passed tests.
“You can observe manufacturing practices with your own eyes,” Lawrence added.
But mistakes still occur, and some unscrupulous factory owners are always trying to boost their profits by cutting corners, watchdog groups say.
The best way to avoid problems is to document production lots and regularly test products, Lawrence said.
Lead-tainted items make it onto the market despite testing programs.
In March, the safety commission recalled 58,000 children’s necklaces that were imported by Claire’s Boutiques Inc. of Hoffman Estates because the jewelry, made in China, contained high lead levels.
Marisa Jacobs, a spokeswoman for Claire’s, said the recall was prompted after a journalist in Canada had tests performed on the jewelry.
Health authorities in Canada notified the CPSC and the company.
“We have a compliance program in place. We do test for lead, but we cannot test every single piece. We test each style,” Jacobs said. “It is a reasonable assumption that when manufacturers make a style, they are consistent.
The company now has testing programs in place in the U.S. and overseas. It also is testing multiple items in each style.
Rapid growth, name changes
RC2 has had problems with lead paint before.
In April 2003, the company, then known as Racing Champions Ertl Corp., announced that 3,800 children’s activity toys sold under the Lamaze brand were recalled because paint on the metal wires of the toys contained excess levels of lead. At the time, the CPSC and RC2 did not say where the toys were manufactured.
In addition, the firm has had three other recalls unrelated to lead paint dating back to 2001.
RC2, which designs, manufactures and markets toys, collectibles and infant products, has been around for more than a decade but usually keeps a low profile.
The firm was founded in 1996 as Collectible Champions Inc. and changed its name to Racing Champions Corp. a year later.
The name was changed again to Racing Champions Ertl after the company acquired Ertl Co., the Iowa maker of the metal die-cast Thomas toys. In 2003, the company changed its name one more time, to RC2.
Revenue has grown briskly, reaching $519 million last year, as the company has capitalized on its licenses for marquee kids’ brands such as Winnie the Pooh, Nickelodeon and Sesame Street. Its products are sold direct to consumers as well as through major retail chains and specialty retailers.
News about RC2’s lead-related recall appears to have drained some momentum out of the company’s stock.
RC2 shares closed Friday at $40.72, up 20 cents from Thursday but down 11 percent from its June closing high of $45.72 a share.
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