China will 'severely' punish those involved in the product safety scandal involving a Chinese manufacturer exporting toys tainted with poisonous lead.
BEIJING: China will "severely" punish those involved in the latest product safety scandal involving a Chinese manufacturer exporting toys tainted with poisonous lead, state media said on Wednesday.
US toy company Mattel reportedly identified on Wednesday a factory in China involved in producing toys which it earlier said were recalled in the United States over fears they contained lead.
"Concerning those involved in seriously conspiring to break the law, the parties involved will be transferred to legal authorities to be dealt with severely according to the law," China's Internet portal sina.com quoted a quality control official as saying.
"The supervision bureau will increase its level of management, stop the export of the goods in question and resume exports when qualifications are completely overhauled," said the official.
The comments came as a series of consumer health safety scares around the globe in recent months involving a wide variety of goods made in China has put the spotlight on the Asian giant's lax safety standards.
China's toy industry is the world's largest.
Fisher-Price said last week it was recalling 967,000 toys including popular Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer-branded toys sold in United States stores between May and August this year. The toys were believed to contain lead paint.
Fisher-Price, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc., said the items were produced by a single contract manufacturer in China but did not give the company's name or location. It was criticized for not revealing the identity of the manufacturer.
On Wednesday the Californian firm named Lee Der Industrial Co. in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong as the factory involved in Mattel's recall, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Mattel said it was still carrying out an investigation about the recalled products but was no longer accepting shipments from the Guangdong factory, the business daily said.
An employee at Lee Der Industrial immediately hung up the phone when contacted by AFP on Wednesday.
In June US toy importer RC2 Corp recalled 1.5 million wooden "Thomas the Train" figures which were also made in China and painted with lead paint.
Wooden wagons and other train-set parts of the toy popular with young children were voluntarily recalled by the importer.
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