Illinois Injury Law Blog

Holiday shopping for your kids brings on a whole new dimension when you take on the safety precautions involved with purchasing toys. It’s a good time of year for you to consider the toys that are safest for your children. Our Chicago personal injury attorneys want you to realize the common danger of defective toys and products before you purchase them.

A good source to use in keeping current with defective products is the Consumer Products Safety Commission. The CPSC updates constantly on product defects and recalls so you know what is safe to buy for your family. Some of the most recent toy product recalls were Rocking Horse toys, bathtub toys, and inflatable balls. The goal of the CPSC is to protect consumers from buying a faulty product that can potentially burn, electrocute, or cause personal injury or wrongful death to to inherent defect of design or manufacture. The worst way to learn if a toy is not made up to standards is through personal experience.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Public Research Interest Group (USPIRG) putting out the Trouble in Toy Land report. Over 250,000 kids ended up in the emergency room last year due to toy related injuries. THE USPRIG puts out this report annually to try to prevent these kinds of injuries from happening. In this year's report you will find safety guidelines for purchasing toys as well as toys that are currently in stores that could likely cause a threat to your child.

The USPIRG offers the following hazards to look for this holiday season:

-Choking is the leading cause of child fatalities due to toy-related incidents. Buy bigger toys, read the warning labels, and don't give small balls or balloons to a young child.

-Refrain from buying magnetic toys because if swallowed they can cause serious intestinal damage to a child.

-Batteries, if swallowed, can be fatal so keep toys with a battery away from a child if unsupervised.

-Noisy toys can not only be annoying, they can do serious damage to a child's ears. If a toy is too loud you should either cover the speakers or take the toy away from the child.

-Toys with cords or drawstrings can be potentially dangerous so as an example, don't hang mobiles within reaching distance of a baby's crib.

-Avoid buying toys with PVC plastic, lead or other contaminants. You should read the label before purchasing play make-up or a toy that has been painted.