By WRVO
New York – The New York Public Interest Group identified about 100 unsafe toys in it's seventeenth annual toy safety survey.
Sean Vormwald of NYPIRG says campus chapters from across the state went to toy stores and shopped online, documenting unsafe toys. Members found choking and strangulation hazards, toxic materials, improper labeling, and dangerously loud toys.
Vormwald says the testing is done according to standards set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Although the survey found that the number of hazards appears to be declining, Vormwald says there were 25 toy-related deaths last year. He reminds shoppers that NYPIRG's list is not a complete list of unsafe toys on the shelves this holiday season.
The toy survey is available online at:
www.nypirg.org
The Syracuse-area Citizens Campaign for the Environment has released its own guidelines for environmentally-conscious holiday shopping. CCE encourages consumers to use their purchasing power to directly support ecologically sound products and services.
Some gift ideas include a solar panel battery charger that sits on the dashboard and plugs into the lighter, annual pass to New York State Parks, or a compost starter kit.
That's available online: www.citizenscampaign.org