Health

RC2 Corp Will Pay $1.25 Million for Lead Paint on Thomas the Tank

by Barbara McPherson | December 29, 2009 at 10:05 am

172 views | 52 Recommendations | 1 comment

RC2 Corporation will pay a $1.25 million civil penalty for the alleged violation of lead paint ban on the Thomas the Tank and Friends toys imported from Asia between 2005 and 2007. The U.S. CPSC staff have alleged that RC2 Corp. and its subsidiary Learning Curve Brands Inc. did not take effective action to ensure that the Thomas the Tank toys complied with lead content standards.

The penalty settlement, which has been provisionally accepted (PDF) by the Commission, resolves CPSC staff allegations that RC2 Corp. and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries Learning Curve Brands Inc., knowingly (as defined by the Consumer Product Safety Act) imported and sold various Thomas & Friends™ Wooden Railway toys with paints or other surface coatings that contained lead levels above legal limits. In 1978, a federal ban was put in place which prohibited toys and other children’s articles from having more than 0.06 percent lead (by weight) in paints or surface coatings. As a result of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, the regulatory limit was reduced to 0.009 percent on August 14, 2009.

Nearly two million lead laced toys were imported to the U.S. between 2005 and 2007.

Thomas the Tank and Friends were a beloved set of characters originally produced in England. They were made out of wood and featured toy rail cars with cartoon like characteristics. As a result of the lead paint scandal revolving around the Asian produced toys, the U.S. regulators reducing the allowable lead in paint to even lower levels.

The recall of the Thomas the Tank and Friends toys was covered in a NP story Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends Recall