California authorities ask Target to pull Valentine ‘Message Bears’ over lead concerns
By APTuesday, February 9, 2010
California wants Target to pull Valentine bears
OAKLAND, Calif. — The California attorney general is asking Target Corp. to pull its Valentine’s Day “Message Bears” from store shelves over concerns about lead in the toys.
In a letter sent Monday, Attorney General Jerry Brown said testing of the holiday items revealed lead levels that violate federal law.
A message left at Target’s corporate headquarters in Minneapolis seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The products were identified as a pink stuffed bear with “XOXO” across its chest and a brown stuffed bear with “I Love U” across its chest, with the word “love” represented by a heart.
Brown’s letter says an investigator for the Center for Environmental Health, a nonprofit watchdog group, bought the toys at stores in California.
