According to an article published yesterday at CommonDreams.org, more than 80 percent of all U.S. toys are now made in China and few of them get inspected. The discovery of dangerous levels of lead paint in toys, jewelry, and bibs–and the recent Mattel toy recall–is finally putting scrutiny on the Bush administration for not taking action to ensure the safety of toys and other imported products. With less than 100 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) inspectors and none in foreign countries, we maybe looking at the era of recalls. The Sierra Club alerted the government to the bib problem. How do we cope if we can’t trust the government to be watchdogs?

By the end of September 2004, the top seven trading partners to the Chinese mainland were the European Union, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), South Korea, and China’s Taiwan Province, according to state statistics from China’s Ministry of Commerce. At number eight of course is Wal-Mart, although I can never find out if the above U.S. number includes the Wal-Mart total or not. What it does mean is a lot of Chinese goods are coming into a lot of countries. This is important because 60% of the products recalled this year came from China and over three-quarters of our toys our coming from China.

China is the only country out of 48 interested parties to tell a CSPC panel that to bring the lead restrictions in children’s jewelry to the same levels as those imposed on toys and furniture–six parts per million, basically a ban on lead in children’s jewelry–might be a barrier to trade. Since we’ve already seen how well the ban on lead in children’s toys is working via the Mattel and other recalls I don’t know why China is balking. But Guo LiSheng, the deputy director of a Chinese global trade agency, had this to say:

“We agree with the viewpoint of USA of protecting the children’s healthy and safety. And we consider that the method of stick warning mark on the children’s metal jewelry … may be more efficient than setting the limit of lead content.”

Is it China’s fault for resisting control? Or do we blame Wal-Mart for pushing prices down so that suppliers are forced to cut costs no matter what, and how about the Bush administration for cutting the CPSC and siding with business? Bill Maher was recently on Larry King and lamented that on many issues he would look to the Democrats but, “Where’s my champion on this issue?” I think as Humanists we must strive to find champions.

See: Who Regulates America’s Toymakers? in Time and Recent Toy Recalls in the New York Times.