China knew about problems with magnets on toys as long ago as March, an industry official said yesterday, following a second massive recall of Chinese-made Mattel toys due to hazards from small, powerful magnets.

Mattel Inc, the largest US toy company, recalled millions more Chinese-made toys on Tuesday due to hazards from the magnets and lead paint and warned it may recall additional products as it steps up testing.

Since the news flashed on internet some 12 days ago, the Malta Standards Authority and the Consumer and Competition Division kept on the alert waiting for any instructions from the EU regarding the recalling, at that time, of about 1.5 million Chinese-made toys around the world because their paint may contain too much lead.

A spokesman for Tradeways Ltd, local distributors of Mattel Inc.'s Fisher-Price said that there were "no Chinese-made toys with paint containing too much lead on local shops' shelves".

Since then the situation developed further. An official with the China Toy Association, who declined to be identified said: "We knew about the situation, because since March some toys had been recalled due to magnetic parts problems."

She did not elaborate on why it had taken so long for something to be done.

The new recall involves 18.2 million magnetic toys globally, including 9.5 million in the US, with magnets or magnetic parts that can be dislodged.

About 253,000 Pixar Sarge die-cast toy cars with lead paint were also recalled. Lead has been linked to health problems in children, including brain damage. The China Toy Association would meet the Commerce Ministry and quality watchdog later in the day to discuss the recall, the official added.

A statement on the association's website (www.toy-cta.org) repeated the standard line that Chinese-made toys were overwhelmingly safe and that the government takes the issue very seriously.

"The Chinese government and industry have all along attached great importance to the issue of toy quality safety, and taken a series of measures such as strengthened authentication," it said.

Of about 300,000 batches for export, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission had only made about 29 recalls, it added.

China has been struggling to convince the world its products are safe after a series of scandals over tainted pet food, drugs, tyres, toys and toothpaste.

Factbox
'Made in China'

Here is an overview of safety scares over China-made products in recent months.

Pet Food: At least 16 cats and dogs died, and more than 100 pet food brands recalled products in North America in March, after Chinese suppliers were discovered to have used the toxic chemical melamine in pet food wheat gluten and rice protein. China cancelled the export licences of two firms linked to the products in July.

Toothpaste, Cough Syrup: Two brands of Chinese toothpaste were banned in the Dominican Republic in May because of fears that they contained the lethal chemical diethylene glycol, which was held responsible for mass poisoning deaths in Panama in May 2006. At least 100 people in Panama were thought to have died after consuming toxic, mislabelled drugs in cough syrups from China.

Tyres: The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration insisted on the recall of as many as 450,000 tyres made by China's second-largest tyre maker, Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Ltd, in late June. It reported that the tyres, used on sport-utility vehicles, vans and trucks, could fail at highway speeds because of an insufficient or missing gum strip that prevents belt separation. The company rebuffed the accusations.

Toys: The world's largest toy maker, Mattel, recalled more than 18 million made-in-China toys in mid-August because of hazards from small, powerful magnets that can cause injury if swallowed, just two weeks after it recalled 1.5 million toys due to fears about lead paint.

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