Haba USA Statement

Nov. 25, 2010 — -- Today "Good Morning America" featured a report about potential hazards of some toys which included one incident involving a toy made by Haba USA.

CLICK HERE to see the ABC News report.

Haba USA responded to the report with the following statement.

HABA is aware of this singular incident with their product. The consumer, Jennifer Tapper, contacted HABA USA on October 5 and within hours the company president personally returned the call to learn more about what had happened. It was obvious the incident had scared the mother, but we were pleased to know that there had been no injury to the child.

HABA USA is 100% committed to toy safety. The company's products meet and exceed all applicable toy safety standards in the United States and Europe. Given the company's commitment to safety, after receiving word of this incident HABA immediately and voluntarily took a number of proactive measures to research the issue. While this internal investigation was underway, the company stopped shipping the item to retailers and also filed a Section 15 report to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

A 70-year old, family-owned, German-based business, HABA followed CPSC's exact instructions for reporting on a consumer incident. And, in accordance with existing test reports, the item in question has been found to meet all current requirements of the federal small parts test standard, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and its included ASTM F963 toy safety standard.

HABA USA is fully compliant with the CPSIA and conducting its testing at 3rd party, independent tests at CPSC-approved international laboratories. Every item HABA imports into the U.S. has the proper Certificate of Compliance document that ties back to a third-party laboratory report…

From the correspondence between Ms. Tapper and HABA USA's president, it appears that the real question being posed by Ms. Tapper and the PIRG relates to the current safety standards. This is a larger issue that would be better addressed by the Toy Industry Association. I'm sure the staff there would be happy to speak with you at any time about safety standards…