Fisher-Price recalling 1.5 million toys

By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mattel Inc. is recalling 1.5 million Chinese-made toys worldwide because their paint may contain too much lead -- the latest in a deluge of product safety scares that have tainted the "made in China" brand.

The recalled toys made for Mattel's Fisher-Price unit include popular preschool characters like Elmo and Big Bird along with dozens of other items.

They were made by a contract manufacturer in China using a non-approved paint pigment containing lead, Mattel said on Wednesday.

Lead paint has been linked to health problems in children, including brain damage.

Mattel is asking U.S. consumers and sellers to return 967,000 plastic toys and is recalling another 533,000 from other countries, including Britain, Canada and Mexico.

Mattel's senior vice president of worldwide quality assurance, Jim Walter, said the recall could hit all its markets and traced the problem to a single manufacturer.

"The disappointment here was we had a single contract manufacturer that we had a long-standing relationship with, who did not do what is required by Mattel," Walter said.

The recall comes amid heightened concern worldwide about the safety of China's exports. Many of the previous problem products have involved smaller manufacturers, but now a major company in a sensitive sector has been hit.

"Nobody wants to face that PR nightmare," said Kent Kedl, the Shanghai head of Technomic Asia, which advises companies sourcing out of China. "But the reality is that things slip through the cracks. And the cracks are a little bit bigger here in China."

Walter said the toy maker had launched an investigation. Mattel had stopped producing and shipping toys from that manufacturer, but said it would wait for the findings of the investigation to decide whether to keep doing business with it.

"GOOD AND SAFE"

China has fought back against consumer concern by promising tough quality controls but also accusing foreign media of "alarmist" reporting that could stoke a protectionist backlash.

"Over 99 percent of China's export products are good and safe," Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said in Beijing on Wednesday, according to the ministry Web site (www.mofcom.gov.cn).

"We hope that concerned parties can treat Chinese products objectively, fairly and rationally. Don't let this damage the normal development of trade."

In the United States, the Fisher-Price toys were sold nationwide at retail stores between May and August, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.