Safety of Noisy Toys: A Current Assessment

Author

Danielle Charbonneau, Catherine Goldschmidt

Organization

Option consommateurs

Published

2004

Summary

Over the years, Option consommateurs, who poduces the Guide Jouets in collaboration with Protégez-Vous magazine, has noticed an increase in battery-operated toys that emit a variety of sounds, some louder, some softer. This increase is troubling because it means that young children are daily subjected to significant sources of noise that may retard their development (particularly in the area of language acquisition) as well as cause temporary or permanent hearing loss. There is little scientific data on the subject, but it appears that children do not hear as well as they used to and that this hearing loss is occurring at an increasingly early age. It also happens that many children are exposed to highly noisy toys. These factors led Option consommateurs to assess the situation and to conduct a study on the subject. The research focuses on battery-operated toys designed for children ages 0–3, since the large majority of these toys are targeted at that clientele.

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OCA Funded Research
This research received funding support through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program.

Contact information

Source: Consumer Policy Research Database