This year has been characterized among many other things, by toy hazard alerts, alarms have continually jumped with toys that came from the Asian market, up to 80% of complaints of dangerous toys made to the Network of Alerts of Non-Food Products had Asian origin, almost 1,600 alerts, which is 48% more with respect to the year 2006.
In our country thousands of toys have also been withdrawn, not as many as in the market of other countries, such as the United States, where the withdrawal has been counted in hundreds of thousands. Spain has suffered mainly alerts for toys such as dolls and stuffed animals, rattles, masks or bows with arrows and suction cups among others, these toys offered potential risks for our children, asphyxiation, poisoning, injuries and even electric shocks.
A worrying fact is that provided by the CICC (Center for Research and Quality Control), after analyzing 660 toys and various products for children, up to 337 did not meet the standards established by the European Union, that is, more than half. The safety of children is the most important and therefore this agency does not hesitate to withdraw from the market any product that does not offer 100% safety guarantees. It is necessary for parents to know what the regulations are regarding a safe toy, in this way, when we encounter a possible danger for any child, we can denounce it by eliminating a risk.
Various toy associations in Spain and the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs, try to disseminate the most appropriate advice for which we should not govern to ensure the safety of our children.
Although many toys have been intervened and removed, there are those who still want to take advantage of economic benefits, even at the expense of the health of minors. For this reason, the controls carried out or the information provided to consumers must be fundamental aspects that mark the tonic for this Christmas. There is a project that will try to reinforce more effectively the surveillance of the channels through which toys can enter.
The minister also explained that "customs controls are already being strengthened" especially for children's products, and "informational material on children's product safety is being developed." In addition, Soria announced that from next year will increase toy inspections within the market campaigns. It will not hurt that we make sure that the toys we provide to children during Christmas are totally healthy and do not contain any danger.
