First off, Mattel has apologized to China and taken the blame for the recent recall of millions of toys. ABC News reports that Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president for worldwide operations, told Li Changjang, China’s product safety chief:
“Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys.”
Debrowski acknowledged that the “vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel’s design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China’s manufacturers.”
It remains unclear to me how this might change perceptions of the Lee Der Toys Company’s CEO, Zhang Shuhong, who commited suicide in August after Mattel found excessive amounts of lead in some of the toys Lee Der produced.
In other news, the LA Times reports that the California Department of Public Health is recalling 300,000 green and blue canvas lunch coolers with slogans encouraging people to be healthy, such as “Eat Fruits & Vegetables and Be Active.” Turns out, these lunch boxes, which have been given away since 2004, contain unhealthy levels of lead. Oops.
