Mattel taking blame?

This week statements against Mattel have been piling up from the manufacturers in Chinese plants, and Mattel seems to be taking it. A statement from Mattel apparently is taking responsibility for denigrating China's reputation in the market. Chinese manufacturers are blaming sloppy management at Mattel for not conducting their own tests for contamination within their products. Chinese manufacturers quoted the sheer volume of products that were allowed to make it to stores with lead paint, the idea that they would rely on an external source to ensure the quality such a quantity of product. Which leads to Mattel's third recall announced on Wednesday. The problem is still lead paint but this time it's Barbie playsets and Fisher-Price toys and accessories, amounting to several hundred thousand pieces. This recent recall is being added to the already 18.2 million Chinese made toys from store shelves.
This leaves me wondering how many of these may have already made it into the homes of toddlers and children worldwide, and how Mattel could legally have not been testing their own products before shipping them to stores. Didn't they have some sort of corporate responsibility to the millions of children that play with their toys everyday? It's sad that the Chinese manufacturers that were toured this week were able to have the foresight to test every so many matches of products or cans of paint, when the toys weren't even to stay in country. They had spotless factory floors and paint scrapers to test the chemical components in the paint they used in production, or kept paints in isolation in order to test the batch before ever using it in the first place. Granted this may have been and probably was the model showroom for Chinese production, but at least they proved they have one plant that is doing things right.


source:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/china.tainted.products.ap/index.html