Don't mess with Thomas

Like many parents, I've spent too much time lately on the floor of my son's room — not piecing puzzles or playing "car crash" but with computer printouts inspecting his fleet of wooden trains and meticulously reviewing his corps of Sesame Street figures.

I have been feeling guilty — and getting angry — about the lead-paint-laden toys I've lovingly pressed into my child's hand — even wrapped with a bow at Christmas. You don't mess with Thomas the Tank Engine, as any mother knows.

The rash of recalls of Chinese-made toys makes me want to declare the toy box a hazardous-waste site. Lead exposure puts children at risk of learning disabilities, behavior problems and worse.

But that won't solve the problem. Goosing confoundingly lax U.S. guidelines for imports and increasing monitoring have a better chance. U.S. importers and Chinese manufacturers must be held fully accountable before products are put on the store shelf.

Chinese-made toys are ubiquitous, comprising about 80 percent of all those sold in the United States. Tuesday, in my son's dentist office, I sounded the alarm over a suspicious red caboose on the most-wanted list. The staffer disappeared. A few seconds later, we heard a thunk as wood toy hit plastic wastebasket bottom.

I called up Rachel Weintraub, and we commiserated about having to wrest poisoned playthings from our disappointed children. Her 3-year old is a fan of the toy engines. As the product-safety director for the Consumer Federation of America, Weintraub sadly is not surprised at the three major toy recalls — two by Mattel and one by RC2 Corp. She predicts more recalls, since the problem is starting to look bigger than one batch of bad paint.

China appears to be clamping down, prompted not just by the problems with toys but with tainted pet food and toothpaste, and bad tires. Last month, it announced increased quality controls and plans to hold manufacturers accountable for selling unsafe products. The government's former top food and drug official was executed for neglectful enforcement and taking bribes.

China revoked the export licenses of two toy manufacturers, though there is speculation they might have been duped by paint suppliers substituting bad product. The owner of one factory committed suicide.

While I'm no supporter of capital punishment, I'm cautiously encouraged China is getting serious about the safety of its exports.

But the United States getting serious about protecting its citizens from bad imports is way overdue. Though the volume of the toys being recalled — 3 million wood and plastic toys, and counting — is attention-getting, the problem of lead in products aimed at our children is old news.

For at least two years, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has been trying to clamp down on children's jewelry made with lead, but the problem persists. Of a batch the agency collected within the past year, 20 percent contained lead. There have been three recalls this year alone. Among them are sparkly trinkets that easily fit the budget and fancy of a girl with a $2 allowance and a passion for butterflies.

After all these recalls, several members of Congress finally are starting to agitate for stricter import guidelines.

Over the phone, Weintraub sighs before welcoming the newly-religious to the product-safety fray. The federation and other consumer-advocacy groups long have been calling for stronger standards. They want federal agencies that police the nation's products and food supply to have more power, including authority and resources to do preshipment inspections and testing, and clearer product-certification standards. A no-brainer goal is a system to trace products so a bad lot can be tracked — whether to a ritzy toy store or the trinket-vending machine at the grocery.

That approach is far better than trying to block Chinese imports — and foreclose a market with huge potential for U.S. services and goods. China gave us a taste of that peril recently. When the U.S. blocked some China-farmed seafood tainted with animal drugs, China responded by blocking some U.S. poultry and pork, alleging they were tainted with anti-biotics.

I would feel a lot better about buying toys — or tires, or pet food — if the U.S. government were more vigilant about what was coming into the country and U.S. toy importers were more exacting of their foreign manufacturers before they distribute the product.

With only 126 shopping days till Christmas, certainly any mom, dad or grandparent will take a dim view of anything less.

Kate Riley's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is kriley@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Opinion at seattletimes.com