The California attorney general and Los Angeles city attorney said they would file a lawsuit today against Mattel Inc., Toys R Us Inc. and 18 other companies, accusing them of making or selling products that contain "unlawful quantities of lead."
The move follows major recalls of toys, lunchboxes, children's jewelry and other goods during the last year by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington.
The suit, to be filed in Alameda County Superior Court under California's Proposition 65 law, would force manufacturers and retailers to adopt procedures for inspecting products to make sure they are safe. Barring that, they would be required to warn consumers that the items contained chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects.
Mattel, the lead defendant in the lawsuit, said it welcomed the attorney general's involvement and added that it would be helpful for the entire toy industry.
"Mattel expected this development and believes that the attorney general's assumption of this case will be beneficial to all parties," a spokeswoman for the El Segundo company said in a statement. "The company has been in continuous communication with the California attorney general's office since the initiation of the recalls this summer and has cooperated fully."
Proposition 65, a successful ballot initiative known as the Safe Drinking Water Enforcement Act of 1986, allows the state to collect civil penalties of as much as $2,500 for each of the millions of contaminated items.
"Obviously, they do not want to put warnings. They are going to eliminate the lead or eliminate the product," said Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown. "But, going forward, we want to prevent these kind of things from happening."
Brown said he expected the companies to settle the lawsuit by agreeing to "conditions such as testing or putting independent monitors in foreign countries." Those measures would ensure that products contain no lead or other harmful chemicals when they are shipped from factories, he said.
Brown noted that Proposition 65 is proving to be a valuable tool to protect California and U.S. consumers from "the new world order where the global supply chain goes from Beverly Hills to the hinterlands of China" and where "some companies have closed their eyes" to the threat of contamination.
