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ROBERTS: Everyday, parents unknowingly by toys that contain toxic chemicals that could be harmful to their children's health and that's why in the Michigan House of Representatives we have introduced the Michigan's Children's Safe Product Act.

Parents have a right to know if there are toxic chemicals in the toys that they buy for their children.  Here in Michigan, The Ecology Center has tested over 3,000 toys and they have found chemicals such as mercury, arsenic, bromine, these toxic chemicals were found in everyday toys like Mr. Potatohead, Ballerina Barbie, and Dora the Explorer products. 

When parents go to the store, to buy toys for their children, they have a right to know that there are toxic chemicals in those toys.  This act requires manufacturers to disclose what chemicals are in their toys.  The Michigan Department of Community Health will then have an online registry of all of these toxic chemicals.  We think its important that parents have the right to know. 

BROWN: A few years ago, I bought a toy for my youngest son called Aqua Dots and it had the date-rape drug in it, GHB.  The company used that because it was a cheaper alternative to another product, a safer product, for adhesive properties.  And when I bought my kid a play structure for our backyard I had to do a lot of research to find one that did not have arsenic in the wood.  Toxic toys continue to be a problem in our state and I am proud to stand here and support this plan not just to help others parents but other Michigan consumers and help better protect our children. 

SCRIPPS: Parents have a right to know what chemicals are in the toys that their children play with and this legislation essentially requires manufacturers to disclose what's in the products that our children are using and it's a balanced approach.  We're asking the Department of Community Health to develop a list of chemicals of concern and then go from there but essentially giving the ability to know what's in that product.  Is there lead in this thing that my child is playing with?  Is there arsenic in the toy that my child puts in their mouth?  That's a concern for an awful lot of parents.  We want to make sure that they have the information that they need in order to protect their kids, information that they currently don't have right now.  So, requiring manufacturers to disclose what chemicals they are putting into the toys our children are playing with and then on the backend of that, making sure that they, that we have enough enforcement so that they are paying attention and they're not… they're not trying to skirt the law.  $5,000 dollars for a first offense.  $25,000 for a second offense, and $50,000 dollars for every offense after that and for those people that are knowingly violating the act, we're going to have them face a civil fine of up to $150,000 dollars and finally, if they're continuing to flout the regulations here we give the Attorney General power to pull products off the shelves that don't comply with this law.  It's important that the manufacturers of these toys are paying attention because our children's health is at risk and by making sure that we've got the right enforcement, we can make sure that they are complying and importantly at a time that every department is facing budget shortfalls and every Michigan citizen is having to tighten their belt.  We can do all of this with an existing budgets.  We can better protect our children at no additional cost to taxpayers, it just makes sense.