Evenflo Company Inc., of Miamisburg, Ohio has just issued a recall for about 25,000 of its Evenflo Switch-A-Roo Telephone Toys due to choking hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) just announced.
Although no incidents or injuries have been reported, to date, a mirror decal attached to the toy can peel away, posing a potential choking hazard.
The recall involves Evenflo Switch-A-Roo telephone toys made between October 2008 and June 2009. The model number is 6391911 and the recalled Evenflo Switch-A-Roo Telephone Toys were sold at juvenile product stores nationwide, including Toys ‘R Us and retailed for about $8.
The CPSC is advising consumers to immediately remove the mirror decal from the toy and permanently dispose of it. Evenflo can be contacted, toll-free at 1-800-233-5921 between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, or at the firm’s Web site at safety.evenflo.com
Of note, the recalled Evenflo Switch-A-Roo Telephone Toys were manufactured in China. Readers of the blog are aware that we have long reported that in recent years, imports from China have been at the center of safety worries in the United States and other countries.
For instance, there was a heparin contamination with a counterfeit ingredient that was implicated in dozens of deaths in the U.S., and hundreds of serious reactions both here and abroad. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also issued recalls of several foods imported from China that may have been tainted with the industrial chemical melamine; melamine-tainted dairy products hospitalized thousands of children in that country.
Despite federal lead standards and that many consider lead poisoning to be one of the most important chronic environmental illnesses affecting children today, toys—many imported from China—continue to be made with elements that exceed federal standards and that could pose serious, sometimes fatal, health concerns. Lead is not the only such problem. As is the case in this recall, toys made with parts that can be removed, pose hazardous, deadly choking and strangulation dangers to children.
