During 2007 consumers saw an unprecedented number of major recalls by Mattel and other companies for toys tainted with lead or other design flaws.

As You Sow contacted more than one dozen toy companies and major corporate media licensors about the use of phthalates, lead, PVC and other product safety issues associated with children’s toys and products.

We asked toy companies to tell us if they had introduced new ways to avoid situations similar to the Mattel recall in the future through enhanced testing of products on shelves and during the production phase, as well as specific questions on worker exposure testing, and the phasing out of PVC from toys and children’s products.

There are four companies we are engaging:

• General Electric (NBC Universal)
• Hasbro
• NewsCorp
• Time Warner