Paper on Lead In Toys

Part III what sorts of options does your person/agency/government have in dealing with this issue?

There are many options in dealing with the issue of lead in toys.  Firstly, manufacturers can take higher responsibility when there are safety hazards in their products.  Once the manufacturer finds out that its product contains high levels of lead, the manufacturer needs to make a recall as soon as possible and reach out to its consumers. Making recalls will highlight the need for stricter toy quality and safety controls.  Also, it will raise the consumers’ awareness throughout the global toy industry to reassure them about the safety of toys. When carrying out the recall, the manufacturer can use video, newspaper or any social communications to reach customers.  Making recalls will however negatively affect to the company’s reputation. The company’s future sales may also decrease, or might go out of business due to a large recall. The contractors and subcontractors may also lose business from bad publicity.   If it doesn’t put the company out of business it is none the less expensive to recall a product due to advertising in newspapers and T.V commercials.

In addition to recalls, the manufacturer should also take steps to test and retest all toys for lead before they are distributed to consumers. To ensure the quality and safety for all of their products, the company needs to have a number of qualified manufacturing inspectors who have the duty to assure the final products for sale to consumers meet all standards in terms of health and safety.  Also, the manufacturer can slow down the shipments to increase product testing and safety reviews. On the contrary, testing and retesting all products to assure quality, health and safety forces the company to spend a large amount of time and money, as well as hiring qualified inspectors to make sure the final products meet the safety specifications.  Therefore, being responsible is not easy, nor is it cheap to implement but it is necessary to protect the consumer.

Secondly, policy makers also carry responsibility in protecting consumers from hazardous products.  One of the U.S agencies that play an important role in dealing with lead paint toys is  the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The CPSC is assigned the duty to oversee product safety and regulate rules to reduce the acceptable lead levels in toy paints that have no harm to the consumers’ health (Wisner, 2011). Through the CPSC’s recommendation, certain manufacturers may be subject to embargos on imports if the manufacturers makes many recalls relating to the health and safety of consumers. The CPSC also needs to regulate the rules for subcontractors, especially Chinese suppliers to make sure all products they produce meet the standards of health and safety.  Moreover, foreigner governments may enforce controls on national suppliers and subcontractors.  For example, China government was able to shutdown the liable factories in the Mattel 2007 recalls, and revoke its business license for violating U.S laws and safety standards (Wisner, 2011).