CALPIRG even showed a few of the dangerous toys not to buy your kids this holiday season during a press conference in South Bay Tuesday morning.
Aside from warning consumers about the variety of hazardous toys out on the market, the main message that the consumer group CALPIRG wants to get out with this year's toy safety report is that buyers should beware this holiday season.
Hazardous toys are still being sold in stores nationwide.
In its 23rd annual "Trouble in Toyland" report, the public interest research group provides safety guidelines and examples of toys that pose choking hazards, and those that contain lead and toxic phthalates which can harm a child's mental and physical development.
After a recall of 45 million toys and other children's products in 2007, including brand names like Mattel, congress responded by passing a new law this past August called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
It overhauls the nation's product safety watchdog agency, giving the Consumer Product Safety Commission more tools to speed recalls, hold corporate wrongdoers accountable and enact bans of certain levels of toxic chemicals in toys by February 2009.
However, there's concern that the law won't be followed.
CALPIRG spokesperson Dan Xie said Tuesday, "Congress intended that toys containing phthalates couldn't be sold after February 2009. But last week the CPSC issued a legal opinion telling manufacturers that they could continue selling these indefinitely until they were out of them. So that could take years."
In a phone discussion with the Toy Industry Association a spokesperson told ABC7 that, "Toy safety is the number-one priority for the toy industry, and the industry has been working year-round to re-gain consumer confidence."
