WASHINGTON - TOY-MAKER Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys - including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters - because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead.
The worldwide recall being announced on Thursday involves 1.5 million plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August.
Earlier, the No. 1 United States toy maker said it was recalling 967,000 toys from the US market.
It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products.
The 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 Power Wheels from toy stores.
General manager of Fisher-Price, David Allmark said the problem was detected by an internal probe and reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Fisher-Price and the commission issued statements saying parents should keep suspect toys away from children and contact the company.
The commission works with companies to issue recalls when it finds consumer goods that can be harmful.
Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than 0.06 per cent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.
Mr Allmark says the recall was 'fast-tracked', which allowed the company to quarantine two-thirds of the toys before they even made it to store shelves.
In negotiating details of the recall, Fisher-Price and the government agreed to withhold details from the public until Thursday to give stores time to get suspect toys off shelves and Fisher-Price time to get its recall hot line up and running.
Mr Allmark said the recall was troubling because Fisher-Price has had a long-standing relationship with the Chinese vendor, which had applied decorative paint to the toys.
He added that the company would use this recall as an opportunity to put even better systems in place to monitor vendors whose conduct does not meet Mattel's standards.
The company said that the surface paint on certain toys and parts made in China between January 2005 and April 2006 contain lead, affecting 26 components and 23 retailers.
President of the Toy Industries Association, Carter Keithley praised Mattel's quick response to the problem, and suggested Mattel will use this setback as a lesson for not only the company but for the entire industry.
However, he expressed concern about how the recall and other toy recalls will play out in consumers' minds in advance of the holiday season. -- AP
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