Planet pulls CSI kits over asbestos concern
By Staff -- Playthings,12/20/2007
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.
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| Submitted by: | Brittany Swan 1/15/2008 2:48:50 PM PT |
| Location: | 5439 So. K . Street Tacoma WA 98408 |
| Occupation: | Middle school student |
I got a CSI feild kit for christmas and it had been bought a couple months befor, on the army base here in washington state, do you think it may be safe to play with? I havent opened it because I didn't know if it was one of them being recalled or not... but now it apears it was. Have any of them had asbestos so far?
| Submitted by: | mary branham 1/4/2008 10:31:31 AM PT |
| Location: | willard ohio |
| Occupation: | retired |
I bought a csi fingerprint kit for my granddaughter
for xmas. We haven't let her open it yet.
I got it from e-toys and so far have gotten no response from them. I have the receipt for it and all.
I take it we should not let her play with it.
Have they recalled it or just taken it off the shelves?
Thanks for any help
| Submitted by: | Cliff Annicelli (cannicelli@reedbusiness.com) 1/3/2008 1:25:05 PM PT |
| Location: | New York |
| Occupation: | Editor, Playthings Magazine |
In response to MBCB's post about Paradigm's being found guilty of fraud by the State of New York...For the record, that event took place in October 2001.
| Submitted by: | mbcb 1/3/2008 12:06:56 PM PT |
Paradigm did the testing...
ROCHESTER ASBESTOS TRAINING COMPANY GUILTY OF FRAUD
Company Loses Safety Training Accreditation and Will Pay $100,000 Fine
Attorney General Spitzer and state Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello today announced that Paradigm Environmental Services, Inc. - a Rochester asbestos safety training company - as well as a company employee, pled guilty to felony charges of filing false safety training documents with the state.
The fraudulent documents certified that employees of Paradigm had received asbestos safety training when, in fact, they had not. The company profited from this law-breaking behavior by filing the false certifications rather than pay its employees for time spent attending a required eight-hour safety training course.
Paradigm is an asbestos safety training company that also supplies air quality monitoring services at asbestos removal sites. The company operates from an address at 179 Lake Avenue.
"By putting profit above safety, this company endangered the health of its own employees," said Attorney General Spitzer. "Unless employees who work in the asbestos industry are properly trained, we cannot be assured of their safety and the safety of those in the communities where they work. My office will continue to work diligently to prevent similar abuses from occurring."
State Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello said: "I want to commend the work of my staff and the Attorney General’s Office for diligently investigating and bringing to justice Paradigm Environmental Services. It is so sad when a company is willing to put its profits above the health of New Yorkers. I hope Paradigm serves as an example to other companies that may be thinking of subverting our training program."
In Monroe County Court today before Judge Charles Maloy, Bruce Hoogesteger, Paradigm’s president, entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company to one count of Offering a False Instrument for Filing, a Class E felony. As a condition of the plea, Paradigm’s asbestos safety training accreditation was permanently revoked by the state and a fine of $100,000 will be imposed at sentencing, scheduled for December 17. Also, the company must pay to have all of its 16 employees properly trained in asbestos safety procedures.
In addition, Arthur Bragg, the former director of asbestos safety training at Paradigm, pled guilty to one count of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a Class E felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
Bragg, of 46 Park Circle Drive, Fairport, is also scheduled to be sentenced on December 17.
Another Paradigm employee, William King, of 15 Dewey Ave., Rochester, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, Oct. 30, and plead guilty to one count of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a Class E felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
Bragg, 72, falsely certified that Paradigm employees had attended his safety training sessions. King, 37, was a Paradigm employee who received a false safety training certificate from Bragg. King committed a crime when he signed a certificate for safety training he never received.
The incidents that make up this case occurred in April, 2000.
Spitzer credited the Department of Health for its thorough investigation of the case, specifically Investigator James Meany.
Investigator Darin Mugleston of the federal Environmental Protection Agency also assisted in the case.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Russell Ippolito Jr. of the Environmental Crimes Unit with the assistance of Investigator Paul Scherf, under the direction of Rocky Piaggione, Chief of the Environmental Crimes Unit, under the supervision of Janet Cohn, Chief of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau.
| Submitted by: | Debs M 1/1/2008 9:15:39 PM PT |
| Location: | Cali |
| Occupation: | RN |
If your child wants to play with the kit,just take OUT THE FINGERPRINT POWDER. If your child wants to play fingerprinting, use flour maybe.
| Submitted by: | Jenni Fisher 1/1/2008 11:18:19 AM PT |
| Location: | Dallas |
| Occupation: | home |
I purchased for my son for Christmas, and both he and my daughter have played with the powder. I am not concerned with whether or not I will get my money back, but IS THERE ASBESTOS IN IT, and what damage could possibly have been done to my children?
| Submitted by: | Wanda Conklin 1/1/2008 11:05:35 AM PT |
| Location: | North NJ |
| Occupation: | Homemaker |
I bought the CSI Finger Print kit for my doughter and she loves it . But I'm confused now she has been playing with it since Christmas . Her Cousent wanted one and thats when we heard about the recall .
I cant find the recite But I bought it from Toys R Us
is there going to be a safer one to replace this one ?
I dont want to brake my childs heart buy telling her she must give it back and she cant have a new one .
This is a shelf pull off not a recall so will the store even take it back now that its used ?
| Submitted by: | MJ Hildenbrandt 12/29/2007 10:37:47 AM PT |
| Location: | Conroe, Texas |
| Occupation: | retired |
I purchased the CSI Field Kit for my grandaughter from COSTCO. I still have the receipt, but she really wants to keep it. I have not let her open the fingerprint kit yet. Do you have any further information on this product.
| Submitted by: | Donna Cranfill 12/28/2007 10:17:15 AM PT |
| Location: | Las Veags |
My son was given the field kit as an Christmas gift , what do we do with it .I have no reciept and do not know were it was purchased . He is upset at not being able to use it . Are the affected produces going to be replaced
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