What’s the problem here?

With all the recent recalls of toys and food, it’s little wonder people’s faith in the safety of products is wavering.

Scratch that, my faith is beyond the wavering stage – it no longer exists.

From toys containing toxic levels of lead paint to food being contaminated with salmonella, I don’t trust anything anymore.

I would imagine that a lot of people feel the same way.

It’s bad enough that the Chinese manufacturers apparently can’t make products that are safe for our children. But it’s inexcusable that we as a country continue to allow these same companies, who have proven they can’t be trusted, to sell products in our country.

There was a case in June where the company who produces Thomas & Friends toy trains had to recall 1.5 million of their products for containing too much lead paint. Lead paint can be deadly if ingested.

Yet this company allowed the same Chinese manufacturing plant – the same one who had the excess levels of toxic paint in the first place – to produce &uot;replacement toys&uot; as free gifts to those children who had toys recalled.

Just a few weeks ago, it was discovered that these replacement toys also contained toxic levels of lead paint.

Hello?

What was this company thinking?

I think there should be some sort of governmental inspection for all goods imported to the United States.

To my knowledge, and the knowledge of my co-workers, there currently isn’t one.

We as consumers are relying solely on the word of these foreign countries that their goods are safe.

There is no inspection process, nothing to ensure that the foreign-made goods we buy off shelves in America are safe for our children.

Really, as much money as is wasted in other governmental pursuits, you’d think they could spare a few million to set up an agency devoted solely to testing portions of these imports.

While I understand that it would require an unimaginable amount of time, manpower and money to test every single product imported into our country, at the very least samples from each shipment should be tested!

I don’t trust these foreign companies who continue to send us faulty merchandise.

They’ve betrayed our trust one too many times.

It’s easy to say, &uot;Well, just don’t buy foreign-made goods, then.&uot;

But honestly, have you looked at products on the shelves lately? Hardly anything is made in America anymore.

Nearly everything comes from China.

The Chinese manufacturers’ word just isn’t good enough anymore. Something needs to be done.

As far as food recalls, that’s for the most part the FDA falling down on its job.

Yes, a lot of the blame lies within the company producing the goods, but it’s the FDA’s responsibility to catch what falls through the cracks.

Obviously, that isn’t working out so well. Not at all, in fact.

Peanut butter, baby food, dog food, ground beef, chili, chicken pot pies… the list is endless.

If you look on the FDA’s website at their list of recalls, there is at least one entry for almost every single day since the beginning of August.

What in the world is going on here?

Can’t they catch these products BEFORE they hit the shelves and pose a health risk to millions of people?

I, for one, am sick of it.

I’m sure all of you who pay attention to these things are quickly getting that way too.