Vancouver Salvation Army checking shelves for dangerous toys
Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/miahansen/645052245/
The Salvation Army has issued a Canada-wide directive to remove all toys from its thrift shop shelves following a massive recall by Mattel earlier this week.
“It’s a big job,” said Janice Lee, a communications officer with Salvation Army’s B.C. division.
Worldwide, Mattel is recalling 18.2 million toys with magnets that pose a choking hazard as well as 436,000 toy cars because of high levels of lead.
“All Salvation Army Thrift stores have been instructed to remove all toys for inspection. They will be checked and if they’re not on the recall list, they can be put back on the shelves and sold,” she said.
Toys on the list include popular thrift store sellers such as Barbie, Dora the Explorer, Polly Pockets, Batman figures and Elmo.
Diane Boyd at Second Story Treasures in Langley said she has seen a massive increase in donated toys since the Mattell recall Tuesday.
“It just seems this week we have been totally inundated with toys,” Boyd said. “I can’t say for sure if all of them are recalled, but I didn’t keep them. It’s such a high risk. This store is run by volunteers so we erred on the side of caution and got rid of most of them.”
“I was amazed at the recall list,” Boyd said. “It’s really, really long.”
Boyd said she and her volunteers at the shop, which is a fundraiser for the Langley Hospice Society, don’t have time to go through all the toys that have been dropped off this week.
“Boxes, garbage bags. I don’t even know how many. At one point we couldn’t even move in here,” she said.
“I would like to think that they didn’t do it consciously,” she said of the donors. “But if they did, they’re just passing the problem on. If you’re not going to let your child play with it, if it’s not safe for your child to play with, why would you pass it on to another child?”
Boyd said the store also ships a lot of toys to Third-World countries.
“They have enough problems without us adding to it or putting them more at risk than they already are.”
Boyd has posted a sign on the door of the Langley thrift shop telling people not to bring their recalled toys to the store.
