Barbie accessories in new toy recall

NEW YORK -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Mattel, announced late Tuesday it is recalling about 700,000 Chinese-made toys that have excessive amounts of lead paint.

The recall covers 675,000 units of various Barbie accessory toys that were manufactured between Sept. 30 of last year and Aug. 20. The action also involves 8,900 different toys involving Big Big World 6-in-1 Bongo Band toys from the company's Fisher-Price brand. Those products were sold nationwide from July through August.

The announcement marks Mattel's third major recall of Chinese-made toys because of lead paint in a matter of a month.

Mattel's last recall, announced on Aug. 14, covered about 19 million toys worldwide. They included Chinese-made toys that either had excessive amounts of lead paint or had small magnets that could easily be swallowed by children.

On Aug. 1, Mattel's Fisher-Price division said it was recalling 1.5 million preschool toys featuring characters such as Dora the Explorer, Big Bird and Elmo because of lead paint. That action included 967,000 toys sold in the United States between May and August.

Lead can cause brain damage when ingested by young children.

Robert Eckert, chairman and CEO of El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel, warned at a press conference last month that there may be more recalls of tainted toys as the company steps up its investigations into its Chinese factories and re-tests products.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission also said Tuesday it was considering a possible investigation of whether Mattel notified authorities as quickly as it should have in connection with the Aug. 14 recall.