http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-scout6oct06,0,81599.story?coll=la-home-center
Cub Scout badges are subject of latest recall
The Chinese-made items contain lead paint, organization says.By Alana Semuels
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:49 PM PDT, October 5, 2007
Cub Scouts across the country are being asked to hand in some of their badges after the Boy Scouts of America announced today that more than a million of the Chinese-made items contain potentially hazardous levels of lead paint.
"No illness related to the product has been reported to us," said Gregg Shields, the national spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America. "We're just trying to be prepared and keep everyone safe."
The square "totem" badges, distributed by Georgia company Kahoot Products Inc., are painted blue and yellow and picture a wolf below the slogan "Progress Toward Ranks." Cub Scouts -- 7- and 8-year-old boys -- earn them by completing a number of tasks, including memorizing the Cub Scouts' motto, sign, handshake, and salute, and mastering an elective such as caring for a pet, growing a plant indoors, or making a stencil pattern, Shields said.
There are about 1.5 million of these badges in circulation.
The badges are the latest in a long list of China-made products including bibs, lunch boxes and toys that have been recalled in recent months for lead-paint problems and other safety hazards.
Shields said the Boy Scouts "recently" began testing products made in China and distributed by American suppliers. Out of 94 items, the totem badges were the only products found to have lead in excess of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission standards. Lead paint has been banned in the United States since 1978 because of lead's link to brain and neurological problems, particularly in children's still-developing systems.
Details of the recall are still being worked out, but Shields said the Boy Scouts of America has alerted local councils of the problem. A letter from Kahoot Products forwarded to local councils advisers consumers to "remove the Cub Scout Recognition totem badge from the children's possession and [keep it] in a safe place where only adults will have access to them."
A representative from Kahoot could not be reached, but on a recorded message for people calling its headquarters, the company said it learned of the problem Sept. 27, and notified the Boy Scouts on Tuesday. On the recording, the company also assures parents that it is unlikely that their child ingested any lead, saying, "The paint on the badge is very robust in its ability to adhere to the badge and does not flake off."
