Warning:Report of Mercury in Child's toy

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Store pulls toy with mercury warning label

 

 

 

By John TompkinsThe Facts

 

Published February 11, 2007

LAKE JACKSON — It appears innocent enough: A rubber ball that looks like an eyeball and lights up with a galaxy of different colors when it’s squeezed.McKayla Blackhurst, 11, of Lake Jackson saw it on a shelf in a Lake Jackson dollar store and thought it was neat, so she bought it for $1.“I thought it was cool,” she said.When she got home, she pulled it out of the bag and noticed a warning on the ball’s label — Contains Mercury, the product cannot be placed in trash and must be recycled or disposed of as hazardous waste.The warning shocked her, and McKayla decided not to open the package“I didn’t see where the mercury was inside of it,” she said. “I wouldn’t play with it now.”The toy was sold in Dollar Tree stores and the labeling indicates it’s only for children ages 3 and older.It since has been pulled from the shelves across Dollar Tree’s 2,000 locations, said Shelly Gagliano, Dollar Tree spokeswoman.“It is being pulled for relabeling,” Gagliano said.The toy has a small watch-style battery inside it that is not easily accessible, Gagliano said. It is the battery that is the source of the mercury, she said.“It’s a very common battery,” Gagliano said. “We were just overzealous about our labeling.”Gagliano did not say how the label would be changed.The toy meets federal regulations despite the mercury warning and battery, said Patty Davis, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.“There is no labeling requirements for batteries,” Davis said.Toys with such batteries cannot be sold to children younger than 3 because they could be considered small parts that create a choking hazard for small children, Davis said. For such a toy to be marketed to a small child, the battery cannot be accessible, she said.That’s a small comfort to McKayla’s mother, Holly Blackhurst, a Brazosport ISD teacher.“I don’t think it should be given to children,” Blackhurst said. “They’re also supposed to be easily removable.”Federal regulations require mercury-based batteries be easily removable from the product to facilitate recycling. Federal regulations states products with such batteries also must have the three chasing arrows symbol to indicate they can be recycled.The chasing-arrow symbol was not printed on the label of the ball sold to McKayla.Gagliano was not available for further comment regarding the labeling of the box, but she previously said 40 percent of Dollar Tree’s inventory is from international sources.John Tompkins is a reporter for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 849-8581.

 

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