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NEWS RELEASES
HOUSTON (Nov. 19,
2007) – As the busiest shopping season of the year descends upon us,
shoppers have much more to worry about than just the long lines and
heavy traffic. Traditionally, the weekend following Thanksgiving
marks the beginning of the holiday gift-buying frenzy. But parents,
just like Santa, will need to check their list twice before
purchasing gifts for the children in their lives.
Dr. Pam Bailey,
pediatric emergency specialist from Texas Children's Hospital, urges
parents to take the appropriate safety precautions by carefully
examining all toys for hidden dangers before they make a holiday
purchase, “Play is the ' work' of children and is the primary way in
which they develop the physical, mental, and emotional skills needed
for life. As parents and caregivers, we must ensure that our
children's ' workplace' is as safe as possible.”
The 2007 “Trouble
in Toyland” list of this year’s most dangerous toys, released
by Texas
Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG) and Texas Children's
Hospital focuses on several categories of toy dangers: toys that
pose choking hazards, toys with powerful magnets, toys that contain
lead, and toys that pose strangulation hazards. “Most of the recalls
this year have been for hazards identified in previous editions of
the TexPIRG report—small powerful magnets, choking hazards and toys
with excessive levels of toxic lead,” said TexPIRG’s Lilly Weinberg.
Although progress has
been made after more than two decades of advocacy on behalf of
America’s littlest consumers, TexPIRG’s researchers still found
trouble in Toyland on store shelves this month. According to the
most recent data from the Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC), toy-related injuries sent
almost 73,000 children under the age of five to emergency rooms in
2005. Twenty children died from toy-related injuries that year.
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