Fisher-Price, a subsidiary of the recall-prone Mattel corporation, recalled nearly 11,000,000 products today in one of the most widespread children's product recalls in U.S. history.

Recalled products include:

• Over 7 million plastic Trikes and Tough Trikes sold under Hot Wheels, Barbie, Kawasaki, Tough Trike, Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Diego names, for impact hazards associated with a protruding fake key;


• About 120,000 Little People Wheelies Stand 'n Play Rampway toys, for laceration hazards;


• Over one million Healthy Care, Easy Clean and Close to Me High Chairs, for laceration hazards; and


• Nearly 3 million infant toys with inflatable balls, for choking hazards.

Click the links above for specific instructions regarding fixes and remedies. Mattel is offering to send kits for you to repair some products yourself, and replace others with different toys that you did not choose to buy. Such a deal.

Mattel's toys, including the Fisher-Price brand, were granted an exemption from third-party safety testing by the Consumer Product Safety Commision. Z Recommends has publicly opposed this policy as a conflict of interest on the part of Mattel, a failure of enforcement by the CPSC, and a policy that would result in hazardous toys being sold to U.S. consumers. As we wrote in an April 2010 post entitled "Why we have so little confidence in the safety of Mattel products":

Unless and until the CPSC gets its act together and holds Mattel accountable for third-party testing, all Fisher-Price products - as well as products by any other subsidiary or brand of Mattel that cannot demonstrate to us that they are committed to independent, third-party lab testing for their products - will be flagged as Low confidence in the ZRecs Guide to Safer Children's Products. For consumers who rely on the guide for information about whether we consider a product to be safe, it's the best red flag we can wave for products for which we lack proof of known hazards, but which cannot demonstrate to our satisfaction that their products are safe for your children.

Our policy stands, and we reiterate: Until Mattel is required to test its products in accredited, independent, third-party laboratories, we will avoid recommending Mattel products wherever we find them, and advise consumers to treat such products as equivalent to untested imports. In the meantime, we encourage you to let Mattel know what you think about their safety standards at (800) 432-5437 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, and to let the CPSC know what you think of their sweetheart deal with Mattel at (800) 638-2772.