Planet pulls CSI kits over asbestos concern
By Staff -- Playthings, 12/20/2007 6:54:00 AM
NEW YORK—Following a lobbying effort by watchdog groups, CBS has asked licensee Planet Toys to remove two of its seven CSI-based activity toys from the market because fingerprint powder in the kits may contain asbestos. Whether they actually contain asbestos, though, remains up for debate.
The impacted products are the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Fingerprint Examination Kit (pictured) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Field Kit. None of the toyco's other CSI kits are involved in the recall effort.
The move—called a "stop sale," by Planet Toys, not a "recall"—comes after tests by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) found that all five Fingerprint Examination Kits from lot "AG 100" that it tested using three independent laboratories were contaminated with asbestos.
Planet Toys’ own test of kits from the same lot found no asbestos. In a posting on its website earlier this month, Planet Toys refuted the ADAO’s allegation that two of the three powders in its CSI kits contained an asbestos content of 5 percent. Its own tests, conducted by ETS-Testconsult Ltd. and Paradigm Environmental Services, concluded that “there was no asbestos detected in any of our kits tested.”
In a statement to CNN this week, CBS Broadcasting said: "We take these issues very seriously, which is why we and Planet Toys have agreed to meet with representatives of the ADAO this week to compare the results of all of our tests. As an added precaution, we have asked Planet Toys to pull the kits from the shelves until we are all in agreement with the testing, and most importantly, the product's safety."
The parties are now working together to develop a protocol for further testing, according to Public Justice, a Washington-based law firm.
