Shhh! CBS Quietly Recalls Best-Selling But Deadly Toy

CBS officials have quietly issued a recall of a best-selling holiday toy, but have so far failed to use their mighty megaphone to actually inform consumers that there is a recall, or how to pursue a refund.

Facing a storm of bad publicity, legal action, and government intervention, CBS has reportedly bowed to pressure from public health advocates and, after a delay of over three weeks, issued a quiet recall of its "CSI" Fingerprint Kit, after three independent labs confirmed that the best-selling holiday toy contains deadly asbestos. CBS Broadcasting has asked that all "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Fingerprint Examination Kits" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Field Kits" be pulled off toy store shelves nationwide. The toy is made in China, where many other recently recalled toys have been manufactured.

The recall was spurred by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), which spent some $165,000 to pay for independent laboratory testing of children's toys and other household products. ADAO is a public health advocacy organization founded in 2004 by asbestos victims and their families. ADAO seeks to represent and safeguard the rights of asbestos exposure victims and their families, while raising public awareness about the dangers of asbestos exposure. ADAO is funded through charitable contributions and staffed by volunteers.

Even though ADAO announced the results of its laboratory tests on November 27 -- in an eye-opening story broken by Andrew Schneider of the Seattle Post Intelligencer -- CBS failed to issue a recall for the next three weeks. Then Public Justice wrote a letter to CBS on December 13, threatening legal action on behalf of ADAO if the network and toy distributor Planet Toys of New York City did not take swift and appropriate action.

Consumer protection officials in Connecticut halted the sale of the "CSI fingerprint examination kit" in the state on December 20 after tests requested by the state revealed the fingerprint dust in the kit contains asbestos. Connecticut embargoed the sale of the kits and forwarded information to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission. (The agency, whipped and cowed by the Bush administration, does not test for asbestos in toys or other common consumer products and has failed in many ways to protect public health and safety.)

Only after the State of Connecticut confirmed the presence of tremolite -- a deadly form of asbestos -- in the finely ground powders of the fingerprint kit, and pulled the toy from shelves in that state, did CBS begin to take action. Yet the media conglomerate to date has done very little, either through its web site, or through its national news programs, to inform consumers that the toy has been recalled or how they can pursue a refund.

Action: Call Liz Kalodner, Executive Vice President and General Manager for CBS Consumer Products, 212-975-7795 -- not to thank her for finally doing the right thing after nearly a month of foot-dragging and public pressure -- but to demand that media behemoth CBS use its megaphone to actually inform consumers that there is now a recall, and how to pursue a refund.

•  Value Kids Over Profits

  If CBS valued public health and the safety of America's children over their  profits, we'd be hearing about this story on CBS News right this minute.

  by jhutson on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 04:54:05 AM PDT

•  From the title, I was sure it was snark.

  Expecting a funny bit about the "Chatty Katie" doll.

  I don't know which is worse, asbestos in the toy or teaching kids that forensic investigation of gruesome crime scenes is fun.

  by Crashing Vor on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:09:51 AM PDT

  •  Oh get real, fingerprinting is fun!

    Kids love this kind of stuff - it's a great science and analytic skills activity.  Even just the idea that all fingerprints are distinct is another great way to talk with kids about how everybody is different and to even sneak in something about DNA.

    Now, exposing your kids to asbestos is not fun.

    by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:19:45 AM PDT

    •  Yeah, my parents got me a stamp pad

      from the five and dime

      Funny McCain Pics archive updated regularly

      by InsultComicDog on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:22:32 AM PDT

  •  I had the same reaction

    When I heard about this the other day. Who thinks crime scene investigation is a fun toy for a child? what ever happened to candy land or  the game of life?

    by atlliberal on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:45:47 AM PDT

    •  Lots of kids want to be policemen/women

      Seriously, this is a popular fantasy because police are respected and get to wear cool uniforms, etc.

      by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:51:56 AM PDT

      •  and--

        It's a really cool real-world, exciting application of science.  By all means, make safe toys that get kids interested in this stuff!

        by qwerty on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 08:27:18 PM PDT

        •  ...and aspire to drive Humvees,

          while The Who plays in the background, like the real CSI's do.

          by bushondrugs on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 08:50:44 PM PDT

          •  well,

            Anyone bringing The Who to the younger generations...

            by qwerty on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:23:54 PM PDT

  •  Natural selection

    I don't know.  I'm all in favor of dangerous toys.  Just ensure there's a warning label on them - "This toy will likely be lethal to your little Jimmy.".  While we're at it let's give all people pilot's licenses and take away the fences from around large electrical transformer complexes.  Just ensure you post a warning sign.

    Natural selection has taken a real beating in modern times where we're so protecting the idiots and the bright people are the only ones using birth control so it just might be time to restore some balance again to prevent being overrun by morons.  

    by artmartin on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 07:00:57 AM PDT

    •  Big Bag o' Broken Glass, Anyone?

      
      
      "Look, we put a label on every bag that says, 'Kid! Be careful! Broken glass.

      by jhutson on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 07:07:21 AM PDT

•  Recced!

  in case anyone here bought this for their loved ones first and foremost.

  Secondly recced for the activism to get the word out - it's the holiday season, how many of these things are under trees as we speak?

  Dad died on X-mas day of lung cancer; a combination of both smoking and laying acoustical tiles, so this subject is too close to home and too close to the anniversary.  Jesus Christ, kids for fuck's sake!

  So, recced!

  by Jeffersonian Democrat on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:10:15 AM PDT

  •  Yes, please recommend and forward to a friend

    What do we need to do here, CBS, get a damn phone tree going, or a blogstorm, so that American families can finally learn that there's a recall?

    by jhutson on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:13:05 AM PDT

•  This process is backwards - a modest proposal

  It's really quite simple.  Companies who sell toys (the ones whose brand the toy carries and which is identified as the manufacturer) are responsible for the safety of those products.

  Don't pawn it off on consumers.

  Don't pawn it off on the government.

  Don't pawn it off on the companies you contracted in China to manufacture them at the lowest cost.

  Don't pawn it off on the Chinese government - boy, now there's a stretch.

  Responsibility follows the money.

  Now the consequences of negligence are too little.  They issue a recall, then hardly any consumers see it and the costs of processing the recall are minimum.  This encourages sloppiness.  Just throw the products out there, and there's very little chance of being caught.  And if you are caught, the penalty is small.  Do the math.

  There's a very simple way of solving this problem.

  Simply assess a fine of three times the total revenue realized for the product which infringed defined safety standards (e.g. lead content, asbestos in this case).  That will finally, properly incent companies to test themselves.

  Ideally, we should be able to depend on the courts for this type of check - but it is too pervasive and the cycle time is too long.

  The fine wouldn't take away the rights of consumers to also sue.  Rather, it sets a minimum penalty.

  by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:16:47 AM PDT

  •  Recommended, but the phrase is "palm off". nt

    by nu on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:46:37 AM PDT

    •  Either one would work

      Pawn off = dispose of or get rid of deceptively

      It's described thoroughly in Webster's dictionary of english usage

      by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 07:29:53 AM PDT

      •  which says:

        This is easy enough to interpret: it must mean "palm off" or "pass off" or "fob off". It would appear to have originated by similarity of sound to palm in palm off. The OED thinks it erroneous for palm, but it may in fact be a dialectal variant.

        by nu on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:17:13 AM PDT

        •  Whatever

          American Heritage fully recognizes it.

          OED disparages it.

          Webster's says it's somewhere in the middle.

          I appreciate the opportunity to study the history, but it's hardly worth an argument.

          Peace.

          by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 10:02:45 AM PDT

          •  I'm always cheered when somebody whips out

            a usage dictionary. Incidentally, Garner (I don't hold much with Garner, but we have a copy in the house) and Fowler don't mention it. Happy solstice and/or Merry Christmas.

            by nu on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 10:23:47 AM PDT

            •  I know what my father the editor would say

              "palm off", stick with the preferred usage.

              Ah, my father, ever the stickler.  It's a blessing and a curse, this love and respect for the English language.

              He was (and still is) a great admirer of William F. Buckley - for his politics and for his command of the language.  Both things which haunt me.  Interesting to note that Mr. Buckley is yet another of the intellectual conservatives who initially vociferously supported the Iraq war but now has come back to rest on his "principles" that it was fundamentally unconservative in principle.  LOL!  Sigh, how the mighty they have fallen, how they have intellectually imploded into a morass of ass-covering clarifications!

              But not my father.  He will always be my father.

              Merry Christmas!

              by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 01:02:26 PM PDT

•  Company in full denial

  Some of this (the link anyway) may be important enough to add to your diary...

  Company's home page claims to refute test results.  A pretty limp-wristed effort.  No expression of concern, no attempt to audit the results of the positive test.  They tested 3 samples and - yep - that's certainly that.  Go and buy them at your retailer.  Yep, they're fine.

  CSI Fingerprint Examination kit

  12/3/07

  Earlier this past week, on November 27th, a Seattle Washington newspaper here in the United States reported on a test conducted by an Asbestos Awareness Organization.  Planet Toys’, CSI Fingerprint Examination kit was among a number of consumer products tested by this organization.  Within this kit are three types of talc powder provided to depict various methods in which fingerprints are gathered and subsequently analyzed by real crime scene investigators.

  While the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization alleged that two of the three powders contained an asbestos content of 5%, Planet Toys test—conducted by a leading asbestos testing laboratory in upstate New York—concluded that there was NO asbestos detected in any of our kits tested.  Planet Toys is both proud and pleased to announce our findings in refuting the asbestos organization’s claim.

  We are also happy to report our CSI Fingerprint Exam kits, and the rest of the CSI kits pictured here on our website, are available at your local retailer.

  Now let's talk for a moment about manufacturing.  Products are typically manufactured in batches, generally using the same equipment but with shipments of raw materials and personnel often varying over the course of production.  It is possible for some batches to be defective or contaminated while others are not.

  So, if you are a manufacturer, and somebody tells you that your products are contaminated, it's not logical to simply test a random counterexample and assert that all of them are clean.  If you actually care about the integrity of your product, you look at the other test results, and you look at the production lots and raw material batches used to manufacture those lots.

  It's obvious that Planet Toys hasn't done this.  They want to shift the burden of proof onto somebody else.  They want to play off of consumers' naivete of the reality of manufacturing in volume.

  Punish these bastards.  This is bad corporate behavior.  They should express concern, pull the product, and conduct a more thorough investigation.  That will ultimately be in their own self-interest as well.  Johnson and Johnson with the Tylenol contamination was the classic example, the standard by which all companies are now evaluated and what all business students today aspire to.

  by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:39:36 AM PDT

  •  The straw that broke the CBS camel's back

    ADAO spent $165,000 for 18 months of testing by two independent labs; they released the results on November 27.

    CBS then contracted for its own tests, and disputed the ADAO test results. Stalemate.

    The straw that broke the camel's back was when the State of Connecticut requested testing from an independent lab, which confirmed the original ADAO report on December 20.

    CBS can no longer dispute the results with a straight face, since the State of Connecticut ordered that the toy be pulled off shelves statewide. So CBS has quietly asked distributors such as Planet Toys of New York City to pull the toy. But the CBS web site and news team have not yet caught up with the developing story.

    by jhutson on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:00:10 AM PDT

    •  Incidentally, toysrus and amazon have pulled it

      It seems to be hard to get now via the internet.

      I reported a number of listings on ebay as prohibited/recalled items.

      However, there remains a CSI field kit, which includes fingerprinting.  This product was not specifically mentioned in any of the releases.  Do you know anything about whether it was also implicated?

      Again, if I were Planet Toys, I would have yanked it too proactively pending investigation.

      by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:04:11 AM PDT

      •  Yep, it's in the diary

        Second graph:

        CBS Broadcasting has asked that all "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Fingerprint Examination Kits" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Field Kits" be pulled off toy store shelves nationwide.

        by jhutson on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:14:39 AM PDT

    •  CBS results = stalemate? Utter B.S.

      As I have argued.

      Anybody who falls for that totally inadequate company response is an incompetent regulator. (which would describe most in the present Bush administration)

      I believe the focus here should be on Planet Toys, not on CBS.  CBS licenses the product, but the party who has complete ownership of the process and who really has the most to lose here is Planet Toys.

      by CA Libertarian on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:10:00 AM PDT

      •  Public Justice is talking w/ CBS and Planet Toys

        The toy licenser (CBS) and the distributors (such as Planet Toys) may be held jointly liable for negligence, if legal action results.

        by jhutson on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:17:07 AM PDT

•  I could SWEAR that I heard about this yesterday

  on CNN. In fact, I know I did! I didn't listen to the news today

  by Pandoras Box on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 07:32:48 AM PDT

  •  You did hear it on CNN.

    Here's the link.

    by jhutson on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 07:46:29 AM PDT

•  What does Grampa Fred

  have to say about this?

  by Crisis Corps Volunteer on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:58:20 PM PDT

  •  he's too busy to discuss it

    He thought it sounded like fun and bought one for himself.

    /snark

    by alizard on Sat Dec 22, 2007 at 02:13:02 AM PDT

•  Why not just ban imports from China?

  China is becoming the world's leading polluter.
  It treats its workers horribly.
  It has a horrible safety record.
  And its products are everywhere.

  Should we ban imports?

  by plf515 on Sat Dec 22, 2007 at 07:23:15 AM PDT

•  Buy American toys

  here is a link to an article in the Hightower Lowdown

  by plf515 on Sat Dec 22, 2007 at 07:26:17 AM PDT