For those of you minimalizing the effect of lead on children, go visit a ward or clinic in NYC. Old buildings (now rented by poor families) used lead paint for years. It peels and children eat it - it apparently tastes good to them. The resulting brain damage is permanent and the process to remove the lead from the human body is painful. It is a cumulative effect so in the case of these toys, it could for poor children be the starw that broke the camel's back.

I don't accept the excuse that workers are paid $.50/hour. The factory owner signed a contract and agreed to produce toys within certain specs. $30 million in toys means he too was making money. This was not the doing of dissatisfied workers. In fact, they are in more danger of lead poisoning than any of the children playing with the toys.

The equivalent rationalization would be that minimum wage workers at a fast food restaurant deserve more money so it is OK for them to spit on the hamburgers.

The recent recalls of products made in China - products which have killed pets and humans - has earned them a boycott. Mattel et al can either provide oversight on site or suffer the consequences.