Fisher-Price last night announced a massive recall of nearly 1 million toys worldwide that are coated with paint believed to contain dangerous levels of lead. Also last night, an Interstate highway bridge in downtown Minneapolis loaded with rush-hour traffic dropped more than 60 ft. into the Mississippi River.

Chinese manufacturers can’t catch a break. To the growing list of hazardous Chinese-made products, add Elmo and Dora the Explorer dolls.

Fisher-Price last night announced a massive recall of nearly 1 million toys worldwide that are coated with paint believed to contain dangerous levels of lead.

As if parents don’t have enough to worry about their children today — online stalkers, playground predators, the bank-breaking cost of an iPhone, etc. — toys continue to be killers?

The worldwide recall affects 967,000 Nickelodeon and Sesame Street toys, Fisher-Price said in a recorded message on its recall line. The recall covers 83 types of toys distributed in 32 countries, including figures of such popular characters as Big Bird, Elmo, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Dora the Explorer and Diego.

In a warning to consumers, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on its Web site that surface paints on the toys could contain excessive levels of lead, which can cause brain damage in young children when ingested.

Mattel, which acquired Fisher-Price in 1993, said it had stopped more than two-thirds of the 967,000 U.S. toys from reaching store shelves, but more than 300,000 had already been bought by consumers from May through August.

In June, U.S. toymaker RC2 Corp. voluntarily recalled more than 1 million wooden railroad set parts from its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line due to lead paint.

This week’s recall is the first for Fisher-Price and parent company Mattel involving lead paint. It is the largest for Mattel since 1998, when Fisher-Price had to yank about 10 million high-prices Power Wheels mini-vehicles from toy stores after a string of fires and injuries to children that went on for seven years before action was taken.

This is simply the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products, adding to worries about the safety of Chinese-made products following a spate of incidents involving tainted seafood, toxic toothpaste and chemical-laced pet food.

China is an important manufacturing base for Mattel, of course, along with Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Mexico, but the world’s largest toy company will likely be able to avoid any supply disruptions because it has a risk-diversified logistics strategy under which it produces many of its key products at more than one facility.

China has become toymaker to the world since its entry to the WTO in 2001 and promotion to permanent normal trade status with the U.S. in 2002.

In a statement yesterday, Mattel said the recalled toys were made by a single contract manufacturer in China, one it described as having “had a good track record on product safety in the past.” The contractor had used lead-tainted paint pigment in violation of “applicable standards” as well as of Mattel’s self-imposed standards, it said.

Mattel said it was conducting a thorough investigation into the incident, and a review of all its third-party manufacturing operations in China.

Earlier: Effective Recalls and the Perilous Easy-Bake Oven

Tit for Tat: China-U.S. Food Fight Escalates

Twin Cities Tragedy
Also last night, an Interstate highway bridge in downtown Minneapolis, Minn., loaded with rush-hour traffic dropped more than 60 ft. into the Mississippi River, sending at least 50 vehicles and passengers into the water, some falling on top of one another.

The death toll is fluctuating among various reports — between four and nine deaths — with 79 reported injuries and dozens still missing.

“This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty said at a news conference soon after the collapse.

The New York Times reports:

The eight-lane bridge on Interstate 35W, the main north-south route through Minneapolis, was being repaired at the time, and a witness told MSNBC that he had heard a jackhammer being used on the roadway just before the collapse about 6 p.m. Witnesses said the bridge, which was built in 1967, collapsed in three sections. One section of the bridge lay flat in the river, with cars parked on the rolling pavement.

A steel truss structure had supported the now collapsed bridge, which was about 1,000 feet long. Repairs were being made to the bridge’s concrete deck, guard rails and lights, state officials said.

Pawlenty said a U.S. Department of Transportation report in 2005 gave the bridge poor marks, designating it “structurally deficient” and likely in need of replacement, Reuters reports. The governor said the bridge had passed inspections in 2005 and 2006.

Both Twin Cities daily papers are being credited with tracking down the 2005 Minnesota DOT inspection report, via online database searches.

On a scale of zero to nine — zero meaning “failed” — the bridge’s superstructure was rated at four, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.

“Inspectors gave the bridge a sufficiency rating of 50 percent on a scale of 0 to 100 percent,” the Pioneer Press reported. “A rating of 50 percent or lower means the bridge might need to be replaced.”

The White House also confirmed the 2005 inspection.

“This doesn’t mean there was a risk of failure, but if an inspection report identifies deficiencies, the state is responsible for taking corrective actions,” The Associated Press reported White House press secretary as having said.

The governor said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would use barges to remove debris from the now-closed section of the river, a vital commercial artery in the country’s midsection.

Federal safety officials are headed to the Midwestern city to help investigate. Investigators are looking at whether bridge construction played any role.

“I unfortunately can’t say how it happened right now,” Mayor R.T. Rybak said in a television interview today.

Resources

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Mattel Consumer Relations Answer Center – Recall Information

Mattel Customer Service: Fisher-Price Toys with Lead Paint Hazard Recall

AP

Forbes

Schaeffer’s Research, Inc.

National Post (Canada)

Reuters

NYT

Editor & Publisher

AP