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Mattel's Chinese subcontractor kills
himself over Barbie recall 
Tuesday, August 14th,
2007
Mattel is recalling 18 million
toys worldwide that were made by Chinese subcontractors, due to
detachable magnetic parts, and lead paint. The Barbie
tanning playset has a "dangerous magnet" that children might swallow,
and Sarge from the "Cars" movie is covered in lead paint.
China's
economy is booming. They are manufacturing the majority of our
products these days, and subcontractors there are cutting corners to
earn our business. Such was the case with Cheung Shu-hung, a
co-owner of the Lee Der Industrial in southern China. He borrowed
paint from a friend for his manufacturing plant, and the paint contained
lead. Almost 1 million plastic preschool toys made by his company
contained paint with excessive levels of lead, leading to Mattel's
recall. Mattel's Fisher-Price brand recalled toys featuring Big
Bird, Elmo, Dora, and Diego, which where also affected.
Cheung
visited workers over the weekend, exchanged small talk with them, and
then went to his warehouse yesterday morning and hung
himself.
1. We always tell you this. But you don't need
to depend on recalls or international news to not get caught up in
this. The recent pet food recalls, the new toothpaste recall, and
the new Mattel / Fisher-Price recall were all originated in one
place: China. The fact is that the quality standards for
manufacturing overseas are not what they are here, and it is a
shame that so much of our production has gone in that direction.
But there IS something you can do, and it's very easy. Flip things
over before you buy them, and check where they were
made. It's a simple change that a consumer can make, but
it makes a huge difference.
2. Raise awareness. You
can post this article as a bulletin on your MySpace page by copying and
pasting the text below into a new bulletin post:
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