Mattel withdraws Barbie products in Spain due to high levels of lead

In 2007, in Spain, the toy manufacturer Mattel ordered several product recalls from its big brands.

It all started in August 2007 when the company announced the withdrawal in Spain of more than half a million units for safety reasons. Of them, 10,000 correspond to the Sarge car, one of the characters in the Cars movie, because its paint, of Chinese origin, bears lead. The other thirty models are from the Polly Pocket, Doggie Day Care, and Barbie and her dog Tanner collections, which contain high-power magnets that can be detached and which were sold in Spain ;a500,000 units between 2002 and 2006. It is the second massive recall of the brand's toys in just two weeks, after the alert on August 1 affected toys intended for early ages. All models were manufactured in China.

The other toys mentioned, which had magnetic parts with an unsafe anchoring system, were sold between 2002 and 2006. The company proceeded will manufacture toys with new anchoring systems as of January 2007, as confirmed by the company yesterday a spokesperson. More than 18 million of them have been manufactured in the world, of which 500,000 were in Spain.

It was the company itself that detected the problem in the failures and gave the alert. Robert Eckert, CEO of Mattel, made no secret of his yesterday his disappointment over the massive withdrawal of his toys from the market. And, worldwide, the figure amounts to 18.2 million units. The fact that the alert came from the company and not from the authorities allowed him to, It is up to the manufacturer to take note of caution. In the United States, the issue was quickly taken up by the corresponding authority, and the withdrawal, first announced on Mattel's website, was publicly communicated by Nancy Nord, acting president of the Commission. ;n of Consumer Product Safety.

The company expects that the first massive recall of these products will have a cost of around 30 million >dollars (22 million euros). An amount that could increase with the new reinforced product quality surveillance system. The company suffered losses in the stock market due to this matter.

Eckert left Of course, "at Mattel we don't put a price on safety. We're talking about children. It's not a question of money." The company thus launches Go to the arena to preserve the brand image, and try to establish a direct dialogue with parents. "They want to know what happened and what is being done to avoid it in the future," concluded Eckert, who did not rule out that in the future it will again ask consumers to return products because it says that the system "is not perfect". "The important thing is to assure parents that we do everything possible to avoid it," he added.

Mattel, again, a month later, issued an aftermarket recall of eight models of its China-made toys because of the lead content in his painting was "above the permitted level." A total of 1,580 units of references K8613, K8606, K8609, K8607, J9485, J9486, K8608, H5705 were affected.

According to Mattel in a statement, the recall is "voluntary" and affected Barbie brand furniture and trailers sold under the Geotrax brand. The toy company also noted "The recall did not affect Barbie dolls," it was just those accessories.

This measure is part of the global recall of a new batch of 850,000 toys made in China, in addition to the 19 million to 500,000 toys that were removed from the shelves of various toy stores and others, in Spain in August 2007.

The items in the new recall alert and their reference number (SKU) in which high levels of lead were now detected are:

• The sofa and the coffee table (K8613)
• The table and chairs (K8606)
• The office table and chair (K8609)
• The bathroom (K8607)
• The dog's house (J9485)
• The cat's house (J9486)
• The sofa and Barbie's little table (K8608)
• The Geotrax Trailer Truck (H5705)

The manufacturer claimed A total of 1,580 pieces of toys were sold, most of which were in 2007.

Mattel asks that those who believe they possess these items contact their customer service phone number ( 900 10 23 90) or visit their website (www.service.mattel.com/es), where a complete list of leftover lead pieces can be provided. In this PDF you have the necessary information to Contact Mattel for Spanish-speaking countries.

The toy company promised replace the parts of each affected product with new parts through door-to-door delivery.

The president of Mattel, Robert A. Eckert, explained that the detection of the affected toys was due to to the implementation of the control system, and "many suppliers have stopped the company's production." He also assured They are going to reinforce the surveillance system, introducing more rigorous controls so that their distributors do not avoid quality procedures. "There is nothing more important than the safety of children who play with our toys."

Eckert made a clear distinction between the problem of paint and that of magnets. Regarding the first, he recognized He noted that there could be a lack of understanding of the rules on the part of his distributors and alluded to because there is always someone who tries to avoid the procedures. To cover the holes, Mattel will check the the components that arrive at the plant; will do surprise quality inspections in toy factories before they go on the market, and will ensure that distributors understand and follow the rules. "If you want to do business with Mattel, this is what you should do," he reiterated. Eckert, while making it clear that "components that do not pass the tests will not be used." The company intends that every toy that leaves its plants is duly verified before putting it on the market.

The toys identified have been produced by two Mattel suppliers: Apex Manufacturing Company Ltd (Apex) for the trailer truck part, and Holder Plastic Company (Holder) for the pieces of the furniture line. These companies subcontracted the painting tasks of the affected parts to Boyi Plastic Products Factory (Boyi) for the former and Dong Lian Fa (DLF) and Yup Sing (YS) for the seconds. These last three companies have used paint not certified by Mattel and have stopped working for the toy company.

On the occasion of the first product recall, those corresponding to several Fisher-Price models, which affected the to almost 970,000 units manufactured by Hong Li Da, the owner of the factory, to which he gave his name, committed suicide, as reported by the official newspaper China Daily.

For more information you can consult the information regarding product collection below:

1)    Barbie® Accessories Collection with Paint with Traces of Lead
2)    Collection of products with magnets. n of products with magnets
3)    Collection of Products with Paint with Traces of Lead
4)    Collecting the accessory -cane with Tanner magnets
5)    Collection of the Sarge Model from the Cars assortment
6)    Little People toy recall® - Portable Camp Let's Play!
7)    Little People Cargo Cart product recall
8)    Voluntary Retirement of F-P Little People® Wheelies™ Super Ramp of Laps
9)    Voluntary Recall of Healthy Care High Chairs, F-P High Chair Near Me, and F-P Easy Clean High Chair