One of Canada’s largest sports equipment manufacturers is recalling 100,000 children’s hockey sticks around the world after Health Canada warned the company of the sticks’ high lead content.
"We immediately ordered the sticks pulled from stores," Bauer Hockey CEO Kevin Davis said Thursday in an interview.
Nearly 67,000 of 13 recalled Nike Bauer junior and youth models were sold in Canada between 2004 and 2009, he said. All of the sticks, except one model, were manufactured before 2008 in one of the company’s Chinese factories, Davis said.
The worldwide recall is just the latest in a series of incidents involving Chinese-manufactured children’s products. The issue first grabbed headlines in 2007 when approximately 470,000 toys in Canada and 25.6 million in the U.S. were recalled because of lead paint.
Thursday’s massive recall was prompted after Health Canada informed Bauer on Feb. 18 that it had conducted a random test and discovered the paint on the Nike Bauer Supreme One50 composite stick contained lead well in excess of the allowable limit.
The Health Canada analysis showed that the recalled sticks contained a total lead level of 2.3 per cent, nearly 40 times the maximum allowable limit of 0.06 per cent, said Stephane Shank, a Health Canada spokesman in an e-mail.
On March 9, Health Canada issued an initial recall of the nearly 8,000 sticks that were sold in Canada.
"We immediately began to independently test all 200 models of our hockey sticks," said Jones. The Bauer testing turned up the 12 other models which have now been ordered off store shelves, he said.
Lead is extremely toxic for young children because they absorb it more easily than adults, making them more susceptible to its harmful effects.
According to Shank, the government agency has proposed lowering the maximum allowable lead level in some children’s products to 0.0009 per cent from 0.06 per cent.
Even low level exposure can delay intellectual development and alter the behaviour, size and hearing of infants, according to Health Canada warnings.
No illnesses related to the hockey stick recall have been reported to Bauer or to Health Canada.
Davis said Bauer has now identified all of the raw materials that were the source of the recall, and a new level of testing has been established so this does not happen again.
He added his company acted quickly and all Bauer sticks currently being sold meet the new stringent levels of safety.
"We certainly apologize to our customers, because we clearly fell short," he said. "But we will continue to provide the best performing products."
Davis said when consumers return one of the recalled sticks, they will receive a brand new "elite level" hockey stick.
Canadian Tire, one of the largest distributors of Bauer sticks in Canada, has been advised it is not affected by the recall. "We haven’t been told about any of our sticks that need to be pulled from our shelves," said Canadian Tire spokeswoman Joanne Elson.
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