Imagine going to work in an office where it feels like Christmas nearly every day. Packages arrive on a regular basis, each one containing new toys the public has yet to see.
No, it’s not the North Pole.
It’s the Department of Labor & Industry’s Bureau of Occupational and Industrial Safety in Harrisburg.
The bureau is charged with ensuring that stuffed toys sold or distributed in Pennsylvania comply with a more than 60-year-old law and are safe for children.
“Most people don’t realize that there’s a stuffed toy law and that there’s a group of hard-working individuals that ensure that the stuffed toys go through a rigorous inspection process,” said bureau director, Matthew Kegg. “It’s an extra added security for the Pennsylvania toy consumer.”
The state’s Stuffed Toy Manufacturing Act of 1961 requires that plush toys intended for distribution in the state be registered with the department. This year, that law got some attention from lawmakers who are looking to modernize it.
To get a registration number, a toy sample must pass inspection. That process, which can generally take an hour or 90 minutes per toy, examines filler content and checks to see if the toy’s outside casing remains intact when pulled. Inspectors also ensure its flammability tolerance is low and it has no loose items that could pose a choking hazard.
About 650 to 675 toys arrive in the bureau’s office over the course of a year.
The bureau’s work doesn’t stop with inspection. Some of its 138 employees are dispersed all over the state and go into stores to inspect to see if the stuffed toys on the shelves are identical the ones attached to that registration number in the bureau’s internal electronic database. If they aren’t, the toy gets pulled from the shelf until it comes into compliance with the law.
In recent years, Kegg said the bureau has seen an uptick in the number of stuffed objects that come through its doors. Some aren’t necessarily geared to children.
“We’ve seen some interesting things come through the doors the past couple years,” he said, with a laugh. “You have things in the past where you have political effigies … you squeeze and it says the same thing that political figure would say.”
About 10 to 15 toys a year fail the bureau’s inspection, Kegg said. Rejected toys are returned at the manufacturer’s expense or incinerated.
Charlotte Hickcox, of the Toy Association, the national toy manufacturers’ trade group, said state programs like Pennsylvania’s “are imperative to helping combat counterfeit toys as well as those that try and to skirt safety standards that may put children at risk through their inspection programs.”
She said toy manufacturers strive to have good working relationships with regulators. Kegg said his bureau too finds it best to have a cooperative working environment with all stakeholders involved, including the 15 Pennsylvania-based stuffed toy manufacturers.
“Everyone is looking to have industry grow in Pennsylvania,” he said. “We’re lucky enough to have a robust economy in Pennsylvania and we can only do that by having a regulator work with the manufacturer to ensure that compliance is occurring and that they are able to do so in a manner that still gets the product out there as quickly as possible.”
The most common reason a stuffed toy fails inspection has to do its filler’s electrostatic nature. Inspectors consider whether the filler material could pose a danger by adhering to a child’s windpipes, ears or nostrils if it gets exposed.
The aspect of the underlying law that grabbed legislative attention earlier this year is the ban Pennsylvania imposes on the use of recyclable materials in the manufacture of stuffed toys. Only Ohio and Massachusetts have similar restrictions although the Toy Association said Pennsylvania’s is the strictest.
Separate bills that would eliminate the ban passed the House and Senate with bipartisan support but neither chamber has passed the other’s bill which would allow it to go to Gov. Josh Shapiro for enactment.
Kegg welcomes the change although he foresees it driving up the number of toys arriving for inspection.
“A lot of times especially with how better the recycled process is now, people feel a lot more confident and happy when they’re going to be using post-consumer recycled materials for their toys,” he said.
Toys that pass the bureau’s inspection find homes with children through the state’s Departments of Human Services and Labor & Industry’s Holiday Wish program. The program that began in 1989 each year distributes the toy samples L&I inspects to children whose parents qualify for public assistance benefits. Over the past seven years, more than 4,200 toys have found homes through this program.
Many of them are toys that have yet to hit store shelves, Kegg said.
“One of the great things about the Holiday Wish program when we’re giving these toys out, there’s going to be a lucky boy or girl that’s out there that will get the first one of whatever this toy could be,” he said. “A toy that was sent to us later in the year and maybe the manufacturer hasn’t ramped up production yet, they could basically have that first toy out there.”
Seeing those toys end up in the hands of deserving children only adds to the joy of what Kegg finds to be an overall fun job.
“What other job can you have where you come in and there could be a new toy that’s never been seen before and you’re one of the first people to see that toy,” Kegg said. “I mean it’s fantastic.”