With the festive season in full swing, gifts and particularly childrens gifts are being swapped across the nation in earnest. Although we are pretty sure that Santa ensures all presents he delivers are rigorously safety tested and appropriate for use, we all need to make sure we deliver gifts to the same high standards.
Sadly thousands of children are injured every year as a result of playing with unsafe or non age appropriate toys. The United States Comsumer Product Safety Commision has created a robust toy safety system, by requiring testing by independent, third party testing laboratories around the world; enforcing stringent lead and phthalates limits for toys; imposing some of the most stringent toy standards in the world; and stopping violative and dangerous toys at the ports and in the marketplace before they reach children’s hands. While the work that is undertaken by the CPSC goes a long way in protecting our young people (and adults) there are still many toy related injuries that take place- in 2010 251,7000 toy related accidents were reported in hospital emergency rooms across the US.
Obviously accidents will always happen, but with Prevent Blindness America declaring December Safe Toys & Gifts Month this is the perfect opportunity to re-cap on some basic safety advice and brush up on your knowledge about buying safe, appropriate toys and what to do should you discover a potential hazard.
With lots of tips and advice available on a number of forums this is one campaign that we should definitely find out more about.
