Mattel, Fisher-Price pay $2.3M fine - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

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million civil penalty for violations of the federal lead pain banin children’s toys. The civill fine comes after the completed an investigationj into the importing and selling of toys with lead paint levels that exceededthe .06 percent lead by weighyt limit that is federally mandated. According to the CPSC, whicn recently crafted the Consumer Product Safet yImprovement Act, aimed at toughening requirements for lead and phthalates in children’s Mattel imported up to 900,000 non-compliantr toys between July 2006 and September 2007. Fisher-Price imported over 1 millionm non-compliant toys between July 2006 andSeptember 2007.
Amonh the toys in question were the populart Sargetoy car, various Barbie products and some Go Diego Go Most of the toys that had excessive levels of lead were shipped to retail stores for sale to the In 2007, a took place where abourt 95 Mattel and Fisher-Price toy modeles were determined to have exceeded the lead limit. Lead can be toxif if ingested by young children and can caus e serioushealth problems. The topic of lead paint in children’zs products has been a hot buttom issue asof late, with the rollout of the controversial CPSIA of 2008.
Toy manufacturers and retailersa have said the new regulationsare vague, costlhy and arbitrary, often requiring the duplicate testing of products. Some smaller manufacturers say the laws threaten to put them out of Thiscivil penalty, which is the highest for violations involving importation or distribution of a regulated product, is the third highesgt of any kind in CPSC history. “Thes e highly publicized toy recallse helped spur Congressional action last year to strengthen CPSC and make even stricterf the ban on lead paint on said CPSC Acting ChairmanThomas Moore.
“Thias penalty should serve notice to toy makerd that CPSC is committed to the safetyyof children, to reducinv their exposure to lead, and to the implementation of the Consumetr Product Safety Improvement Act.” Mattel was unable to be reached for commen Monday morning, though a representative said they would have a response later in the day. Despite agreeinh to pay $2.3 million in penalties, Mattel and Fisher-Pric deny that they knowingly violatedfederal law, as alleged by CPSC