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Mattel’s So Special – Not Required to Do 3rd Party Testing
Well isn’t Mattel just so special. How special you ask? While other toy makers and manufacturers of goods for children must have a third party give their items a seal of approval, good old Mattel doesn’t have too.
Apparently the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently gave permission to Mattel to self regulate and use their own in house labs for testing. Congress passed a law last summer – after oodles of toys were found containing lead – that requires testing on anything intended for the under twelve set. Six of the recalled toys in question were from Mattel, which resulted in $2.3 million dollars in civil penalties fines.
Michael Green, executive director of the Center for Environmental Health, said that “It’s really ironic that the company that was a principal source of the problem.”
Mattel defending their in house lab saying that they have a “firewall in place to ensure that test results are protected form corporate influence.” A Mattel spokesperson said, “We have extremely qualified people who work feet away from our production lines…it allows us to do more testing than any other toy company out there.”
And they felt very strongly about this, spending about a million dollars in lobbying efforts to have their own labs do the testing. News of the approval of the in house testing has been on the ‘down-low’ with no press release or mention on the CPSC’s website.
Do you think it’s fair that a toy giant like Mattel, who had issues with their toys in the past, gets to do their own testing?
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Laure68 commented on Aug 27 09 at 8:55 pmWell, in looking at the original article, it seems that this law has a provision to allow companies to do their own testing, as long as they can prove that they are insulated from undue corporate influence. Requests from other companies are pending.
I guess if this is how the law is written, the only thing one can question is whether or not Mattel truly met this requirement.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Aug 27 09 at 9:34 pmIf Mattel applied to do their own testing after several years of allowing 3rd party testing and staying clean, I might support their move. But having just gotten caught with their lead pants down, I don’t trust them. This is not a good sign from the company.
mary jones commented on Aug 27 09 at 10:34 pm
Bluster commented on Aug 28 09 at 8:13 amAs your posting shows, they’ve already paid the penalty for sins of the past. After all, campaign financing ain’t cheap nowadays. What’s next, you ask? Well, how about changing the requirements for those who label their product ‘Organic’, so they can do their own certification. It would lower the price, you know. And on and on and on.
Stella commented on Aug 28 09 at 9:44 amAs the old saying goes, “You’ve got to pay to play”. I guess that’s what lobbying and $2.3 million in fines get’s you. This is scary…
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