Press Release
August 3, 2007

VILLAR CALLS FOR PASSAGE OF TOY SAFETY LABELING LAW

As China-made dolls of leading US toy maker Mattel are pulled out of local shelves as part of a worldwide recall following the discovery of lead paint on the toys' surfaces, Senate President Manuel Villar called for the passage of a law that will require toy safety labeling.

"Our children must hug safe, not toxic dolls," Villar said in pressing anew for a law that will mandate the attachment of warning labels to toys, if such carry harmful materials such as plastic bags that can suffocate a child.

Villar has refiled what is now Senate Bill 84, which mandates the fastening of "easy-to-read cautionary warnings on toys and their packaging."

The warning labels are needed, Villar said, to prevent toys, especially those with small components, from harming children.

He said "toy safety labeling" has become "a universal practice" which must likewise be enforced in the country through legislation.

While no local data are available, hospital emergency rooms in the United States where toy safety labeling is mandatory treat about 190,000 toy-related injuries annually, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission reported in 2000.

In Senate Bill 84, Villar said toys that do not carry safety labels should be pulled out of store shelves and "banned for hazardous substances."

The bills requires the plastic covering and other packaging of a toy or a game intended for use by children 10 years old and under to bear the cautionary statement, "Warning: Choking Hazard."

Marbles, small balls, and latex balloons, or toys containing marbles and small balls, shall also contain such warning sign on their packaging, bin, box, or covering "in order to prevent their ingestion by children," Villar stressed.

Villar said toymakers should also indicate in the product information if any of the materials used in manufacturing the toy is "toxic, corrosive, irritant, flammable, or combustible." Under Villar's bill, the warning sign shall also be in Filipino.

Villar called for toy safety labeling after one million pieces of China-made Barbie dolls, Hot Wheel cars, and dolls featuring Sesame Street and Nickelodeon characters were ordered recalled by Mattel after it discovered that the paint used in making them contained lead.

Complying with the order, the local distributor of Mattel has pulled out these products from local stores .

Villar said the Department of Trade and Industry should ban toys that use lead paint, "a move which does not need an act of Congress to enforce."

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