With the holiday shopping season underway,the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group has released its annual report on toy safety. Director Abe Scarr cautioned that parents and guardians need to watch out for toys with toxic chemicals on store shelves.
"These are some of the most dangerous," Scarr said, "because they'?re invisible to parents and caretakers. Unfortunately, many children'?s products, including plastics, use chemicals like phthalates as softeners, which can pose a hazard to children, especially with accumulation over time."
ConnPIRG also found toys that exceed noise standards. The National Institute on Deafness advises people to avoid prolonged exposure to noise levels above 85 decibels. Scarr said, "They advise close-to-ear toys should not produce continuous sound that exceeds 65 decibels. We definitely found several toys on the shelf that exceed those decibel levels." That includes toy cell phones marketed to children six to 18 months old.
ConnPIRG reports that in the past five years, stronger rules have helped to get some of the most dangerous toys off the market, but not all toys comply with the stricter laws.
Watch archived footage of ConnPIRG's annual toy safety report briefing below:
