W.A.T.C.H. Your Toys

The trend and demand for increased awareness on content labels started with food. It's easy to understand how food is the primary focus in how the content of our everyday products can be affecting our health and standard of living. Everyone loves to eat and eating is so obviously internal, but what about the toys our children play with and toddlers chew and suck on while teething???

What better time of year for us to be more aware about the toys we are purchasing to celebrate the lovely upcoming gift-giving holidays, christmas and chanukah. Thanks to the non-profit organization, World Against Toys Causing Harm, Inc. (W.A.T.C.H.), which is dedicated to educating the general population about the dangers lurking in some toys, we can be more confident in the purchases we make this holiday season.

W.A.T.C.H. published their 2008 top ten nominees for the "10 Worst Toys" based on "examples of packaging and labeling which fail to give the consumer fair warning of dangers that are known, or should be known, by the manufacturer." The "Pucci Puppies" Toy, photographed above, is listed on W.A.T.C.H's top ten because the packaging does not indicate that the small parts that come with the toy could be easily ingestible by a child.



Now if I was browsing the aisles for a toy for my little cousin Ariana, the "Pucci" Pup would stand out as the perfect gift for her because she has a real pup named Pucci; she also has a little baby brother running around under the recommended age for this toy. In seeig this item on the shelf I would probably get so excited by the idea behind the toy I might not think twice about the fact that the bite size accessories might be choking hazards for little baby brother.

In this case maybe a label would make me think twice about purchasing this toy for Ariana and I am thankful for non-profits like W.A.T.C.H. that look out for my sometimes thoughtless shortcomings.

W.A.T.C.H. is fighting for our labeling and safety rights, but manufacturers and consumers also need to take more responsibility in our product purchasing and production habits. If manufacturers take more responsibility in being more conscious about what they're producing and consumers take on the responsibility of accepting their product choices instead of suing companies for accidents that unfortunately do happen and are unforseeable, maybe this list of ten would be more like five.

Happy Responsibile Shopping!