With the passing of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act in 2008, putting more protections in place, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says, holiday shoppers this year can purchase toys, confident in the safety of the products.

The new law imposing strict standards and protections, has lowered the limit for lead amounts in the toys, including making third-party testing mandatory for certain products. As well, it allows government and agencies to perform more than a watch dog role when it comes to children products, with the government using more resources for enforcing these safety laws, than it did in the past, with the CPSC getting $105-million this year, and hoping for $118-million next year.

Shoppers are also recommended to follow age ranges supplied by manufacturers for toys, which are safety standards, not based on cognitive abilities.

So far, this year, there have been fewer recalls of toys, as compared to in the past, with the US government praising Beijing for ‘taking toy safety seriously’ two years after millions of Made in China toys were recalled amidst fears of their being dangerous.

The recall saw the Chinese government closing down numerous toy factories, including educating toy makers about USA’s new rules, such as, toy manufactures now required to have certain products tested and certified by independent, accredited laboratories.

The new Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act rules, now allow only 90-parts per million (ppm) of lead paint in toys, including an overall lead content of 300-ppm. Certain phthalates or chemicals that make plastic malleable have also been banned from toys and accessories children are likely to put in their mouths.

As compared to 2007 and 2008’s 150-toy recalls, there have been only 38 so far this year.