Toy safety data is a text away
If you're out shopping today and you want to know how safe that toy is before you buy it, you can peruse with more confidence if you've brought your cell phone. Rachel Dornhelm has more on toy safety texting.
Cell phone in a Verizon store. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
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Doug Krizner: Two-thousand seven may have been the year of toxic toys. If you've got questions about what your kids are playing with, Rachel Dornhelm reports the answers are just a text message away.
Rachel Dornhelm: You're at an after-Christmas sale, or just in your living room, and you want to know now: How safe is this toy? Pull out your cell phone and type in HealthyToys . . .
[Sound of text message being sent]
And the name of the thing, say Polly Pocket's Pet Boutique. Text that all to 41-4-1-1.
[Sound of a text message being received]
You get back a message that tells you:
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner: Polly Pocket's Pet Boutique was tested and it comes back as a medium level of toxic chemicals detected.
That's Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director of Momsrising.org, which spearheaded the project with the Washington Toxics Coalition and the Ecology Center. The ratings of high, medium and low are the result of testing for toxins like lead, cadmium, chlorine, arsenic and mercury.
Over 1,200 toys are in the database, which is also online at healthytoys.org for parents who aren't into texting, or those who want more details about the ratings.
I'm Rachel Dornhelm for Marketplace.
