News From the Department
State Library Urges Parents To Send Back Summer Reading Program Toys
For more information contact Maryanne Friend, 919-807-7388
The State Library of North Carolina urges parents to return toys distributed through the “Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales” summer reading program to their local library. The four inch, bendable toys may contain unacceptable amounts of lead.
Highsmith, one supplier of items used in the nationwide “Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales” Summer Reading Program, issued a recall for two animal toys that children may have received. The bendable toys were purchased from this manufacturer by an estimated 28 county libraries in North Carolina; other libraries may have purchased bendable toys from different sources. The North Carolina summer reading program receives funding from the State Library.
“The “Paws, Claws” program is national, and toys were purchased by libraries from this and other vendors in approximately half of the U.S.,” said Mary Boone, State Librarian. “We urge parents to return the bendables.”
The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued a statement warning parents and provides information about lead or lead testing through the N.C. Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Hotline at 1-888-774-0071. Additional information can be found online at the Children’s Environmental Health Branch Web site at http://www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/ehs/Children_Health/index.html.
Local county health agencies also have information.
The State Library of North Carolina is an agency of the Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history, and culture. For more information, go to www.ncculture.com.
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