Each year more than 3 billion toys and games are sold in the United States. Many of these are manufactured overseas, where safety standards regarding the ingredients in the rubber and plastic in the toys, lead in the paint, choking hazards, and a myriad of other potentially injurious conditions simply do not exist.

Although the latest available statistics are from 2004, they paint an alarming picture of a set of products that are supposed to bring enjoyment to your children.

According to those statistics, from the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Approximately 155,400 children, ages 14 and under, were treated at hospital emergency rooms for toy-related injuries in 2003. Nearly half of the children treated for these injuries were ages 4 and under. While only about 3 percent of these injuries require hospitalization, Unfortunately, there were at least 16 nine- and- under child deaths that year caused by toys.

Half of the deaths were caused by choking and suffocation, mostly from toy balls, latex balloons and game dice. Children under four, who account for half of these statistics, are particularly susceptible to choking injuries because they put everything in their mouths, and because their air passages are smaller than those of older children and adults.

The vast majority of toy- related deaths in children age 14 and up involve some sort of motorized toy. Under 14, many injuries come from non- motorized scooters, skateboards, and similar products.

Other causes of toy-related deaths in 2004 included drowning, suffocation, strangulation, and riding toy accidents (such as when a child is hit by a motor vehicle while riding a toy, or when the child rides a toy into a body of water).

It also goes without saying that the recent problems with lead- painted toys from China is a separate statistical entity.

Toys are continually being recalled because of safety issues. Over 25 million toys were recalled in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007.

Very simply, there are millions of products sold into the marketplace every year that endanger children. The manufacturers of these toys need to be held accountable if their products injure a child.

Toy manufacturers must be held to the highest possible standard of safety, because they are selling their products to the most vulnerable members of society—children.

As attorneys who specialize in catastrophic injuries to children, we know how to hold accountable manufacturers and stores that injure children. Please contact us for a free initial evaluation.