Steelworkers across Canada, have mounted a campaign against toxic toy imports and other products from countries like China where safety regulations are lax.
Local 6500 Steelworkers warned parents Monday morning at Jubilee Family Resources Centre to be careful when buying products made offshore everywhere from discount stores to higher end businesses.
“Products like toy animals contaminated with lead, lead laced vinyl bibs, lead painted wooden trains, poisoned pet foods, even tainted tooth paste are flooding in from offshore countries. First we workers lost our jobs to them now they are coming back with cheap products that can be harmful to our children, even adults,” said Lynne Descary-Parker, co-chair of the Women's Committee of Local 6500.
“I just became a grandmother and this concerns me dearly,” she said.
Lead is often used in countries like China because it boosts the vibrancy of colours used in paints or makes products more pliant such as bibs, she said.
“For the product producers, lead is a cheap way to get the desired effect . We know they abuse their workers. Why should they care about us, an ocean away, who buy their products?” she asked.
Lead interferes with the tissue around nerves, is harmful to bones and has been linked to autism and ADHD, said Descary-Parker.
“There is no safe level for exposure to lead,” she said.
Descary-Parker and Steelworkers president John Fera advised parents to test toys for lead by purchasing a simple kit for $3 shipping and handling from the Steelworkers which can test up to eight toys. If lead is detected chemically by the enclosed marker when it makes contact with the item, it turns red indicating contamination. Up to eight toys can be tested by one package.
Visit www.stoptoxicimports.org or www.protect-our-kids.org or www.usw.org for more information and where to get kits.
