NEWTON, Mass. - In light of recent recalls and concerns about toy safety, award-winning toy store Green Planet Kids undertook to test their entire product line for lead, and is offering free screening for toys their customers purchased elsewhere. Green Planet Kids owners Annabelle Ship and John Sanders had their entire toy store tested with a state-of-the-art XRF scanner. "We're not aware of any other toy store in the country that has taken this step to ensure that their products are safe," said Ship. "Our customers were asking questions. We didn't want to trust anyone else in the supply chain. We wanted to witness the testing so that we could respond with confidence to our customers' concerns," said Ship.
NEWTON, Mass. - In light of recent recalls and concerns about toy safety, award-winning toy store Green Planet Kids undertook to test their entire product line for lead, and is offering free screening for toys their customers purchased elsewhere.
Green Planet Kids owners Annabelle Ship and John Sanders had their entire toy store tested with a state-of-the-art XRF scanner. "We're not aware of any other toy store in the country that has taken this step to ensure that their products are safe," said Ship.
"Our customers were asking questions. We didn't want to trust anyone else in the supply chain. We wanted to witness the testing so that we could respond with confidence to our customers' concerns," said Ship.
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Ship and Sanders found 15 items in their store that tested positive for lead. Surprisingly, six out of the 15 were manufactured in the USA. "This is not a Chinese problem," said Ship, "it's a global manufacturing issue. Compared to most of the world's problems, this is an easy one to solve. If a small mom-and-pop toy store can take this initiative to make sure their products are safe, why aren't the manufacturers and the large stores doing the same? Everyone who makes their living from toys needs to step up to the plate and take responsibility."
As a public service, Green Planet Kids has also been hosting free screening events every evening so that families can bring in their favorite toys to check for the presence of lead. Parents have been showing up to the testing nights with unopened gifts that they plan to give their children on Christmas morning.
The testing is performed with an XRF machine from Innov-X Systems that is specifically designed to perform on-the-spot screening of lead and other hazardous metals.
Green Planet Kids was established in 1990 as a general environmental products store. As "green" products went mainstream, the store transitioned into a full-fledged toy store with an environmental bent. The focus is on creative, open-ended wooden and cloth toys, with an educational and nature-based orientation.
