Alison Cassady, toy tester on a mission

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

(HealthDay News) -- Alison Cassady, 33, plays with toys all day long. She pushes buttons and works parts. She listens and she feels.

Then she tries to break them.

Cassady is research director for U.S. PIRG's Washington , D.C. , office, a national nonprofit consumer advocacy group that produces an annual toy safety report.

In her job, Cassady acts much like a parent. She wanders the aisles of all sorts of stores -- department stores, big-box toy stores, smaller boutiques -- and gives the toys there a once-over.

"I peruse the shelves and look for toys that might not meet consumer protection standards," Cassady said. "I do a lot of shopping. That's about what it is."

Cassady chooses to take a decidedly low-tech approach to her work. "I try to use the tools parents have," she said. "I don't have a lot of fancy gadgets."

One of the first things she does when approaching a new toy is check for choking hazards.

"I look at the toy and use common sense -- are there any parts of this toy that could break off and form a choking hazard," Cassady said. "I try to break it in the store with my hand. It's something parents can do. If a part doesn't look secure, they can see if it breaks off."

She also checks the packaging of toys with small parts, to make sure they've been properly labeled for choking hazards.

Cassady will run some toy parts through a "choke funnel" -- a small tube designed to see if the bit of plastic could become lodged in a child's throat. Parents can use empty toilet paper tubes to do much the same thing, she said.

These days, Cassady also uses lead testers purchased at a hardware store to check toys for lead paint, a growing concern given all the recent recalls of Chinese-made toys containing lead paint. She does the testing in the store, adding, "In general, it doesn't hurt the toy at all. This is something parents can do, too."

Cassady also listens to each toy. "In a toy store, I push all the buttons," she said. "If it's too loud for me, it's probably too loud for a child."

Toys that she suspects could damage a child's hearing are bought and taken back to the PIRG office, where a decibel tester is used to determine exactly how loud it is.

Toys with magnets are another concern. Kids sometimes swallow the tiny powerful magnets found in certain toys and end up suffering intestinal blockages and other internal injuries.

"I purchase the toy and take it home with me and see if the magnets fall out," she said. "The real problem comes when the tiny magnets fall out. Little children pick them up and eat them, because they often look like candy."

Even though Cassady spends her days looking for trouble, she said the good news is that most of the toys available for children don't make the PIRG list.

"We have found that most toys are safe," she said. "I test hundreds, and we come up with only 30 or 40 toys that are dangerous. It's the exception when I find one that's not made well or doesn't have the right warning labels on it."

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