Over half of Chinese toys harmful to children: Russian watchdog

Moscow, Aug 17 (UNI) More than half of the China-made toys sold in Russia were harmful for children's health said head of the Russian Federal Service for Consumer Rights Supervison (Rospotrebnadzor), Gennady Onishchenko.

''China-made toys are not safe for children as they failed to meet the applicable sanitary and epidemiological requirements,'' he told reporters here, noting they contain lead, resins, formalde hydes, substandard dyes and unsafe tiny parts.

He said he had ordered a probe into the sale of children's toys of Mattel-make and would withdrew such toys from the sale in case of need.

Inspection of companies that sold toys of Mattel was also in the mind with particular attention paid to toy cars, dolls, figures, sets of toys, Mr Onishchenko said.

He said out of the 185,000 samples examined last year, 93,000 proved unsutaible for children.

Giving such items to children particularly newly-born babies is very risky. Young kids tend to put in mouth every single item they come across. As a result they may poison themselves with heavy metal particals or swallow small parts of toys.

Due to the higher lead content, Mattel is removing from market up to 436,000 toys made in China. It is also withdrawing magnetic toys produced from January 2002 to January 2007.

UNI