CPSC declares Zhu Zhu Pets are safe
It appears that if you don’t conduct a test properly all you end up doing is scaring consumers unnecessarily. Just ask GoodGuide.
The other day we reported that consumer safety group Good Guide had conduced tests on the popular Zhu Zhu Pets and discovered dangerously high levels of antimony, a chemical that can lead to cancer or reproductive problems. Well, according to the Los Angeles Times , the test that found these levels was conducted incorrectly, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) is now saying that the toys are completely safe.
Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the agency, said, “The Consumer Product Safety Commission confirmed today that the popular Zhu Zhu toy is not out of compliance with the antimony or other heavy-metal limits of the new U.S. mandatory toy standard.” He also went on to add, “We will still do our own independent testing at CPSC. But we’re confident today and can confirm that the toy does not violate the very protective antimony standard that applies to all toys in the United States.”
In light of the newest information, GoodGuide has changed its page for the toy and replaced it with a link to the following statement:
In a press release we issued on Saturday, Dec. 5, we published the results of our testing of chemical levels in toys and stated that certain toys we tested had antimony and chromium levels that exceed federal standards. Since issuing our release, we have learned that the testing methodology used in the federal standards (a soluble method) is different than the methodology we used in our testing (a surface-based method). Accordingly, while we accurately reported the chemical levels in the toys that we measured using our testing method, we should not have compared our results to federal standards. We regret this error.
Cepia LLC, the company behind Zhu Zhu Pets is of course welcoming the fact that it has been exonerated in the matter. The US Toy Industry Association has also criticized GoodGuide for the misleading results by telling The Financial Times, “False results are not unusual using XRF technology, so decisions should not be based simply on these methods.”
As someone who used to report on the toy industry for various publications back in the 1990’s, I can say with some level of expertise that the safety testing conducted on toys such as these is fairly extensive. The problem is, the damage has been done. Allegations of unsafe toys will linger in a consumer’s mind no matter how much press coverage is done of the retraction.
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December 8th, 2009
The publicity may be a double-edged sword: while it’s certainly very harmful to be tainted in this way, here in the UK many major newspapers and TV reports have jazzed up the story by dubbing the hamsters as this year’s must have toy and showing kids having great fun with it.
There was also one report with the captivating headline “Mr Squiggles won’t harm your kids”.