Lead Fears Make Wooden Toys the Rage

By TATYANA GERSHKOVICH, Special to the Sun
December 5, 2007

Independent toy stores in the city that sell old-fashioned wooden playthings are booming thanks to this year's many recalls of Chinese-made plastic toys containing hazardous levels of lead or toxic chemicals.

A correspondent for "The Daily Show," Samantha Bee, said she is no stranger to toxic toys: Last year, she did a holiday-themed report on questionable toys in a segment called "Devil's Playthings." Ms. Bee said that when it comes to buying her own daughter toys, she shuns large retailers in favor of locally owned stores to avoid buying dangerous and "junky" toys.

The manager of West Side Kids, Leslie Bergman, said her small store this season has seen many new customers looking for wooden toys made in Europe.

Concerns about safety have led parents to larger questions about whether simpler wooden toys are better for a child's development. An Upper West Side mother, Eve Epstein, said that while lead is a big issue, many of her friends are choosing wooden toys "because a wooden toy doesn't tell you what to do with it, so the child will exercise his imagination more."

The manager of Enchanted, a store on the Upper East Side that sells all wood toys, Gloria Mills, said it is a misconception that highly conceptualized plastic toys are more appealing. "When children come in here they are blown away because they can touch anything; nothing is wrapped in plastic," she said. "One mother told me her child loves his wooden giraffe so much he sleeps with it."

When customers come to buy gifts, the owner of the Upper East Side toy store Promises Fulfilled, Caryn Klausner, writes down what they selected and whom the present is for. "I don't want any repeat presents. People don't realize that the Upper East Side is a neighborhood and everyone knows everyone," Ms. Klausner said. "I've been here 18 years and I know all the kids," she said.