An American toy company issued a retroactive recall on spinning tops this week after a newspaper reported the company opted to change the design of the toy in 2002 rather than issue a recall upon learning of the lead content.
Schylling Associates Inc. recalled about 51,000 tops in the Thomas & Friends, Curious George and Circus Top lines sold between June 2001 and July 2002 after the Chicago Tribune purchased one of the tops on eBay and sent it for testing.
Test results showed the tops contained lead paint at more than 40 times the legal limit for children's toys in the United States, the Tribune reported.
Lead levels in children's toys are a concern because children absorb it more easily than adults and are more vulnerable to poisoning. Exposure to high levels of lead can cause vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, coma or death. Symptoms include anemia, appetite loss, abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability and headaches.
Jim Leonard, chief operating officer for the Rawling, Mass., toymaker, told the paper that the company conducted tests at the time and found the toys contained lead.
He said he found a June 2002 test report that said the wooden knob on the Thomas & Friends spinning top was coated with lead paint. The knobs were replaced with plastic ones a month later.
Leonard said he didn't know why the company did not issue a recall at the time.
In a letter posted on the company website, president Jack Schylling said that Schylling Associates had never sold "any toy known to have contained lead paint."
"We regret that some toy tops manufactured between 2001 and 2002 may contain lead-based paint and were distributed without our knowledge."
He wrote that the company replaced the wooden handles after the 2002 report, found by Leonard, but did not issue a recall because the company didn't believe the affected toys had been distributed.
"We were assured by the manufacturer that no toys containing lead paint had been shipped from the factory in China," he said, adding that Schylling Associates has severed its ties with the manufacturer.
Since the report ran in the newspaper on Thursday, the company has also been checking lead content in metal pails with wooden handles sold during the same period.
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