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Mattel in new toy recall

25/10/2007

American toy manufacturer Mattel has announced the recall of 12,000 products in the UK and Ireland due to "impermissible levels of lead".

The California-based firm, which owns the Barbie and Hot Wheels brands, said the recall had been prompted after an "extensive investigation" uncovered irregularities with two logos on the Go Diego Go Animal Rescue Boat.

As well as the 12,000 toys being recalled in Britain and Ireland, 43,500 have been sold in the United States and Canada.

The affected versions of the Fisher-Price toy, an orange and yellow boat that squirts water, have been sold since June 2007 and display the product number K3413.

Customers are being urged to contact Mattel to determine whether their products are subject to recall, whereupon the company will sent consumers a stamped addressed envelope to return the product and full replacement.

"Mattel has now tested samples of the vast majority of products expected to ship for the holiday season, including those produced before the implementation of our three-point check testing system," Geoff Massingberd, senior vice president of the company's newly-created corporate responsibility organisation, said.

"This testing program continues and all toys manufactured since the adoption of the new system have been, and continue to be, sampled and tested prior to leaving the manufacturing facility."

Mattel said that the lead-containing logos had been created by paint firms in China.

Today's recall marks the fourth time over the last six months that the company has been forced to ask customers to return some of its products.

Chinese factories were the common link in all three of the earlier recalls.