Categories: Social Issues
Since our family has been affected by toy recalls, I must admit that I have only focused on ensuring that no hazardous toys find their way into our home. Also in my plight to ensure awareness for consumers I have given very little consideration to the people who actually work in the factories that supply these tainted and hazardous toys.
So I asked myself, if there has been a recall on a North American toy product due to excess levels of lead (or barium, etc.) because if a child ingested some of the paint and risked become seriously ill with long term development issues and even death…what was happening to the workers?
Here I began my research and am slowing beginning to understand the awful back-alley of our shiny toys for the North American market. I found this revealing interview YouTube, with a celebrated veteran journalist Loretta Tofani, which describes the terrible conditions, zero safety standards that obviously lead to serious illnesses (and death) for Chinese factory workers.
About
Veteran reporter Loretta Tofani’s investigative project took her to China, where over a 12-month period she visited more than 25 factories and observed first hand how Chinese workers routinely lose their health and their lives making products for export to the United States and other countries.
It’s so sad that for most toy makers and their manufacturer, the only concern is their bottom line. Most toy makers want the cheapest production cost possible, so they go with the cheapest manufacturer in China they can find. They know full well that the safety standards for the product will be marginal at best, let alone the safety and health of the factory workers.
It’s great the you put the spotlight on the exploited and forgotten factory worker. They are the ones that suffer the most and most people don’t take the time to even think about them.
Wow! That is really eye-opening. I had never thought about what happens to the factory workers.