The recall and removal of products used or played with by children just keep expanding. If this continues some major retailers will no doubt be in for a tough sales season as the holidays approach. Via the NYT:

Toys “R” Us halted the sale of vinyl baby bibs at its stores nationwide yesterday and offered customers refunds on perhaps more than a million bibs after tests confirmed that at least some of the Chinese-made items are contaminated with lead.

“Quality control slipped at the point of manufacturing,” said Kathleen Waugh, a Toys “R” Us spokeswoman. “I certainly don’t know how. But it happened somewhere in the quality control process.”

The move by the company, which sells about one million vinyl baby bibs a year, came in response to an article in The New York Times on Wednesday that reported that independent laboratory tests by The Times and a California environmental group had found lead contamination in the store-brand bibs.

The contaminated bibs were marketed under the Koala Baby, Especially for Baby and Disney Baby labels and manufactured for the company by Hamco Baby Products, a unit of Crown Crafts.

You bet quality control slipped. I don’t care if the retailer or the manufacturer says there are no significant health care worries associated with these bibs. We simply need to have faith that products we purchase, especially for our children and grandchildren are safe.