Mattel recall suits a risk: experts

By Paritosh Bansal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mattel Inc. (MAT.N), the largest U.S. toy company, not only has a huge image problem but could face a series of lawsuits after two major recalls in a month, legal and public relations experts said on Tuesday.

Mattel recalled 18.2 million magnetic toys globally, including 9.5 million in the United States, and about 253,000 Pixar Sarge die-cast toy cars with lead paint.

The company, best known for its Barbie toys, also said it may recall more products as it steps up testing for lead paint and quality control on thousands of toys.

The news followed a recall of about 1.5 million preschool toys earlier this month by the company's Fisher-Price unit because the paint on the toys might have contained excessive amounts of lead.

"Mattel has a spectacular reputation that they risk now in a very dramatic way," said Howard Rubenstein, founder of Rubenstein Associates, Inc., a public relations firm specializing in crisis communications. "It is a mighty blow."

"They have got to be prepared for a lengthy series of court battles," he said.

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

"If there are potentially kids who are harmed out there ... then there are going to be big lawsuits," said Ted Tanenbaum, an attorney with the law firm Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein. "Their quality control people should have known about this."

Tanenbaum usually represents injured people in product liability lawsuits.

Mattel already faces one lawsuit stemming from the recall earlier this month. Farrah Shoukry, a Florida parent, sued it in U.S. District Court in Manhattan last week, seeking a refund for toys, money for diagnostic tests for lead poisoning and damages. Shoukry is pushing to have the case certified as a class action.

LEAD IN TOYS

The U.S. recall includes 7.3 million Polly Pocket dolls and accessories with magnets, 1 million Doggie Day Care magnetic toys, 683,000 Barbie and Tanner magnetic toys, and 345,000 Batman and One Piece play sets.

"Many parents are going to be very concerned if they find out that their child was playing with leaded paint," said Lewis Nelson, a toxicologist at New York University Medical Center.

Nelson, however, said the bigger concern about children's health is going to be about the ingestion of lead rather than the handling of it.

"Unless there is really a reason to believe that the paint got on their hands and they were licking their hands, I think it is an incredibly small risk," he said.