Nearly half of the toys purchased from third-party sellers via online marketplaces were unsafe for children to play with, a new study has found.
The report commissioned by the British Toy and Hobby Association (BTHA) found many of the potential gifts could choke, strangle, burn, poison and electrocute children.
Out of the 255 toys that were randomly selected, inspected and tested, 88% were illegal and 48% were unsafe for a child to play with.
And now, following the report which tested items bought via Amazon, eBay, AliExpress and Wish, the BTHA is calling for changes to the law so that children can play without risk of injury or death
Sam McCarthy, the mother of two-year old Rebecca, who almost died after swallowing magnets she thought were sweets, is heading the campaign.
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X-rays revealed the magnets were so strong that they had linked together inside her body and ruptured three parts of her intestine.
“I would hate for any other child to go through what Becca suffered because of buying dangerous toys via online marketplaces,” Mrs McCarthy said.
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“The government needs to take urgent action before any other child is critically injured or even dies.”
Natasha Crookes, Director of Public Affairs for the BTHA, said: “It is not acceptable that unsafe and non -compliant toys are simply allowed to enter the UK market, putting children at risk of serious harm.
“We believe the government has to step in to legislate this wild-west of safety and we must see politicians from all sides of the House coming together to protect children as part of the UK review of the product safety framework in 2021.”
Currently, there is no legal requirement for online marketplaces to check the safety of the products that other sellers are listing on their site.
Many of these sellers are based overseas, outside the jurisdiction of UK enforcement leading to calls from the BTHA for stricter product safety laws.
In a statement to Sky News a spokesperson for eBay said: “We take the safety of our users extremely seriously and we’re sorry to hear of Ms McCarthy’s experience. We have removed the products identified and have taken appropriate action on the sellers.
We continue to work closely with authorities including Trading Standards and OPSS to help ensure sellers and listings on eBay comply with laws and regulations.
As part of our ongoing commitment to consumer safety, we have filters in places which automatically block listings which are unsafe or do not comply with our policies. These filters blocked millions of unsafe listings from making it onto site.
Our teams also work around the clock as an additional safety net to manually review and remove anything which may not have been caught by our filters”.
A spokesperson for AliExpress said: “We are investigating the items identified by The British Toy and Hobby Association Report and we will take appropriate action in accordance with our platform rules, including where applicable removal of products and penalising sellers found to be violating our platform rules and regulations.”
A statement from Amazon said: “Safety is important to Amazon and we are investigating the products in question as a matter of urgency.
“We require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws and regulations and we have proactive measures in place to prevent suspicious or non-compliant products from being listed.”
A spokesperson for Wish told Sky News: “All merchants trading on our platform undergo certain checks before being permitted to trade. They are also required through our Merchant Policies and Terms of Service to adhere to all applicable product compliance laws and regulations, including local laws and safety standards, wherever their goods are sold.
“Where a product doesn’t meet those standards, it is promptly removed and, where deemed appropriate by Wish, the responsible merchant has their account privileges revoked, faces suspension, or even removal from the platform.”
“Every morning I wake up and there is a small part of me that thinks, ‘Is today the day I’m going to be diagnosed with some sort of cancer?'”
This is the question Susan Lee asks herself every day. It is part of the mental anguish of living with Hepatitis C.
Susan was born with Von Willebrand disease.
As a child, her blood clotting disorder was treated with a product called Factor 8. It was supposed to revolutionise treatment for haemophiliacs.
Instead the American product farmed from prisoners and drug addicts was infected with HIV and Hepatitis. It was never screened or treated before being injected into the veins of patients.
The risks were known. Susan’s father raised concerns.
“I remember specifically on one occasion he went into the consulting room and spoke to my consultant,” says Susan.
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“[He] said, ‘I’m very worried about this, and I want you to let me know if Susan has or will receive any American blood products’.
“And he said to my father, ‘Absolutely not’.”
However, at 14, Susan discovered she had been infected with Hepatitis C, like thousands of other patients in the worst NHS treatment scandal in history.
Susan believes patients like her were exposed to great risk and potential death to increase profits for the companies that were producing these blood products.
“I think unfortunately it always comes down to cost implications. And we know that American blood products were cheaper from those big pharmaceutical companies.
“We know there were other treatment options available. There were German products that were out there and could have been used, but at a higher price point, and they were not chosen.”
The Hepatitis C infection has had a devasting impact on every part of Susan’s life. She has had to give up her career as a barrister.
“It’s been a really, really difficult time for us as a family. And it’s intergenerational because we were given these products to take home, my parents were taught how to inject. My mother has a huge feeling of guilt surrounding that,” she says.
“Three weeks ago, she sat me down and said, ‘I’m so terribly sorry.’
“I said, ‘You’ve got absolutely nothing to be sorry for. It was nothing to do with you. You did your best’.
“Also my children, from having witnessed the times that I was really, really sick, you know, my daughters asking me, ‘Mummy, why can’t you run in the school races and for sports day?’
“Because I could barely lift my head off the pillow to get out of bed to be there.”
Later this morning, Susan and the thousands of other victims of the infected blood scandal will get answers to the decades-long search for the truth.
At Westminster’s Methodist’s Central Hall just after midday, Sir Brian Langstaff will deliver his report into the infected blood scandal. It is expected to be damning.
Des Collins, senior partner of Collins Solicitors which represents 1,500 victims and their families, said the inquiry chair is likely to hold many people accountable.
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“If you are going to point the finger at someone, you’ve got to give them notice and it’s that notice process which has delayed [the report] probably for the last six months. So a lot of people will have the finger pointed at them.
“They will be held accountable for each individual part of the scandal, which is appropriate insofar as their involvement is concerned.
“I don’t think we’re going to get the finger pointed at one person saying, ‘You are responsible for the whole thing,’ because there are so many people involved in it and they’re all making individual decisions.”
The significance of this moment cannot be overstated.
The great hall will be full of people infected with deadly diseases in secret trials, bereaved parents who saw their children die and all of the others affected by this preventable tragedy.
The atmosphere will be charged with emotion, anger and hopefully relief.
The delay in delivering justice has compounded the grief and anguish felt by so many. After being lied to and ignored for decades, they finally have their day.
This report must mark the beginning of the end of this shameful scandal.
Sky News will have full coverage of the infected blood report on TV, online and on the Sky News app today
“Losing Gary, my soul mate, was beyond painful,” says Kathryn Croucher, whose husband died aged 42 in 2010.
“Every day was a struggle dealing with the knowledge he was HIV and Hepatitis C positive.”
“Mum always said she was given a death sentence,” recalls Ronan Fitzgerald. His mother, Jane, died aged 54 after being infected with Hepatitis C when she was 16. “It was a ticking time bomb.”
Sky News will have full coverage of the infected blood report on TV, online and on the Sky News app today.
More than 30,000 Britons were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
Around 3,000 people have died as a result of the scandal, while many more still live under the shadow of health problems, debilitating treatments and stigma. Now, the findings of a public inquiry, first announced in 2017, will finally be published.
These are 100 faces of infected blood victims that either they, or their families, have shared with Sky News.
“I’m never drinking tap water again,” Kayley Lewis says.
“My symptoms have made me lose a stone in two weeks.”
Ms Lewis and her two children have been suffering from diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps for over a fortnight – since South West Water found small traces of the parasite cryptosporidium in the Hillhead reservoir.
“I can’t trust them [South West Water] again.
“I might start using tap water for dishes… but definitely never to drink. Ever.
“I’ve been completely put off now… especially because of how poorly it makes you feel.
“I just don’t think I could ever try and risk going back to that.”
At least 46 people are confirmed to have the disease, while as many as 70 other cases of diarrhoea and vomiting are also under investigation, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.
South West Water (SWW) has repeatedly apologised – telling Sky News today that they are working “around the clock” to get all households back to using safe water again.
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This could be as early as this Wednesday, drought and resilience director at SWW David Harris told me.
“We’re looking at somewhere between mid to late next week before we’ll be in a position to be able to responsibly lift that boil water notice.”
So far, 14,500 households in the Alston supply area can drink their tap water without boiling it first – as advised by SWW.
However, some 2,500 homes in Hillhead, upper parts of Brixham and Kingswear have been told to continue boiling – and cooling – their water supplies before drinking it.
Steve Price, who runs the Station Guest House B&B near Brixham, said he lost a couple of thousand pounds in bookings due to – understandably – paranoid customers.
“Losses we anticipate are roughly around £2000 from people that have cancelled and directly stated that the cancellation was due to the water situation.
“So we would anticipate that at the bare minimum as compensation.”