BY JOURNAL TIMES STAFF | Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2007 12:00 am
State Rep. Cory Mason. D-Racine, has drafted a bill to prohibit the sale of contaminated toys in Wisconsin. In the past few months the toy industry has been shook by reports of products contaminated with lead.
Mason's bill would require the state government to keep a publicly available registry of contaminated toy recalls and notify manufacturers to switch to a nontoxic alternative within 180 days. Any manufacturer which didn't comply would be banned from selling that product in Wisconsin.
Precisely how the state would enforce compliance would be left to the rules which the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection would draft if the bill becomes law, Mason said. The bill borrows heavily from a similar law enacted in Maine, he said.
Although publicity has an effect on toy makers, Mason said, the market won't correct itself. A consortium of consumer groups reported about two weeks ago that 35 percent of 1,200 children's products they tested contained lead.
"When you have that level of noncompliance, that's when the state needs to step in and protect its most vulnerable citizens," Mason said. This situation also shows the cost of free-trade agreements which lead to overseas manufacturing and less product oversight, he said.
Mason is circulating his bill among legislators to find co-sponsors and plans to introduce it when the Legislature reconvenes in January.