Illinois consumers are entitled to a refund if they bought any of the bibs Wal-Mart pulled from stores nationwide because tests showed high levels of lead in them, state Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan said Thursday.
The retailer’s decision this week to remove the cloth-and-vinyl bibs was voluntary and not technically a recall except in Illinois, Madigan said. Because of strict state regulations regarding lead in children’s products, Illinois is the only state where Wal-Mart is offering to replace bibs or refund money, she said.
“It’s just outrageous that we have products that can be dangerous to children being sold,” Madigan said.
About 60,000 bibs were sold in Illinois, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said. Lead sometimes is used as a stabilizing agent to help make plastic products last longer.
Mia Masten, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said in a statement that the nation’s largest retailer has received no reports of injuries from the bibs.
The bibs were sold under Wal-Mart’s Baby Connection store brand from June 2004 through March 29. They were made in China by a division of Louisiana-based Crown Crafts Inc., according to the statement.
A Mt. Prospect grandmother’s curiosity about her grandson’s bib helped prompt Wal-Mart’s decision, Madigan said.
Marilyn Furer used a home test for lead and discovered that the bib she bought last fall had high levels of the toxic metal.
Furer contacted the based Center for Environmental Health in California, which also found lead in bibs sold in that state. New York and Illinois’ attorneys general conducted similar tests with similar results.
The tests by the California center found that one Wal-Mart bib contained more than 16 times the legal limit for lead in Illinois and three others had high lead levels.
It wasn’t Furer’s first brush with lead. In 2005 she saw a TV report about lead-tainted soft plastic lunchboxes. When she bought a test kit at a hardware store and tested her two granddaughters’ five lunchboxes, three of them contained lead.
Last fall, Furer bought the bib for her grandson Jensen because he was drooling on his clothing. When he started stuffing the bib in his mouth, a light bulb went on, she said.
“I remembered the lunchboxes, and it wasn’t hard to make a connection,” Furer said, so she tested the bib.
The results still have her hopping mad.
“Someone from an official capacity should say, ‘Look, we’re going to do spot testing on anything that’s coming in from China for infants and children,’
” Furer said.
Lead can be toxic. Last year, a Minneapolis-area girl who swallowed a piece of a bracelet died of lead poisoning, according to federal regulators. Lead poisoning also is associated with stunted growth, behavior problems and learning disabilities.
There have been dozens of lead-related recalls of children’s products imported from China in the last year. Such recalls have increased since 2003, said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The commission cautioned this week against using older bibs made of vinyl and cloth that are cracked or falling apart.
Tests found that none of 40 bibs purchased at various retailers had significant levels of lead.
“There are very, very low accessible lead levels” in the bibs the safety commission tested, Wolfson said.
A bill introduced in 2005 by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) that Obama plans to reintroduce would outlaw any product for children under age 6 that contains anything over trace levels of lead.
“The solution is, before these products are ever put on store shelves, they need to be tested,” Madigan said.
State residents who bought the bibs can have their money refunded at a local Wal-Mart or call 877-373-3812 for replacements.
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lford@tribune.com
