Children's Toys and Necklaces Made In China Recalled

WASHINGTON – Toys and children's necklaces made in China were recalled Wednesday, including five more items from the popular Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line, because they contain dangerous levels of lead.

RC2 Corp.'s "Knights of the Sword" series toys and some of its Thomas and Friends items, along with floor puppet theaters and gardening tools and chairs for children, were among the more than 601,000 toys and children's jewelry announced in the recall by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The recalled toys contain high levels of lead in their surface paint, and the necklaces and jewelry sets contain excessive lead in some of their metal parts.

Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than .06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall. The government warned parents to make sure children are not playing or using any of the recalled products.

This is the second recall from the Thomas & Friends product line after RC2 Corp. announced June 13 a recall of 1.5 million wooden railway toys. The company is recalling five items, totaling about 200,000 toys in all, of Thomas & Friends toys not included in the first recall.

Julie Vallese, a CPSC spokeswoman, said today's recalls were a result of both pressure from its agency and the toy industry's own initiative.

"There's been a very concentrated concerted effort by both the CPSC and the industry to do a top to bottom investigation of the products to make sure they are not in violation with any toy safety standards," said Vallese. "Today's recall is a result of that work."

"The agency overall has been pushing and strongly suggesting to industry, whether it's RC2 or anybody else, to do a systematic inventory," she said. "I don't think consumers have seen the end to lead paint recalls."

The CPSC announced seven recalls in all:

— Target, the importer of Happy Giddy gardening tools and children's Sunny Patch chairs, recalled about 350,000 items of the product. The children's gardening tools and chairs, made by Starite International Ld., were sold nationwide from August 2006 through August 2007.

— RC2 recalled about 200,000 Thomas and Friends Wood Railway Toys and 800 "Knights of the Sword" series toys.