Most Imported Toys Substandard

Society Desk

Over 80 percent of toys manufactured domestically and 70 percent of imported ones do not meet the safety standards.
Announcing this, Majid Abhari, an expert on social liability, said 85 percent of toys used by Iranian families are substandard, which pose danger to the health of children, both physically and mentally.
“A three-year study was conducted by the Foundation of Behavioral Sciences on the safety of toys in Iran,” Abhari said, adding that the study shows most parents purchase toys that are not age-appropriate.
“Playing with toys, which are not age-appropriate, can cause mental and behavioral disorders,” he said, adding that the age labels on many products are improper.
He said many toys in the market have small parts, which can easily separate and cause choking in children.
“The colors used in toys, the material and quality should be taken into consideration,” he said.
Abhari also said annually 40,000 billion rials are used for importing toys that are substandard.

Toy Shopping Tips
Toys are supposed to be fun and are an important part of any child’s development. But each year, scores of kids are treated in hospital emergency departments for toy-related injuries.
Choking is a particular risk for kids of ages three or younger, because they tend to put objects in their mouths.
Manufacturers follow certain guidelines and label most new toys for specific age groups. But perhaps the most important thing a parent can do is to supervise play.
Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind when shopping for toys:
• Toys made of fabric should be labeled as flame-resistant or flame-retardant.
• Stuffed toys should be washable.
• Painted toys should be covered with lead-free paint.
• Art materials should say non-toxic.
And make sure a toy isn’t too loud for your child. The noise of some rattles, squeak toys, and musical or electronic toys can be as loud as a car horn--even louder if a child holds it directly to the ears--and can contribute to hearing damage.
Always read labels to make sure a toy is appropriate for a child’s age. Still, use your own best judgment--and consider your child’s temperament, habits and behavior whenever you buy a new toy.
You may think that a child who’s advanced in comparison to peers can handle toys meant for older kids. But the age levels for toys are determined by safety factors, not intelligence or maturity.

Age-Specific Guidelines
For Infants and Preschoolers
Toys should be large enough--at least 1¼” (3 centimeters) in diameter and 2¼” (6 centimeters) in length--so that they can’t be swallowed or lodged in the windpipe.
A small-parts tester, or choke tube, can determine if a toy is too small. These tubes are designed to be about the same diameter as a child’s windpipe. If an object fits inside the tube, then it’s too small for a young child.
If you can’t find one of these products, a toilet paper roll can be used for the same purpose.
Avoid marbles, coins, balls and games with balls that are 1.75 inches (4.4 centimeters) in diameter or less because they can become lodged in the throat above the windpipe and restrict breathing.
Battery-operated toys should have battery cases that secure with screws so that kids cannot pry them open. Batteries and battery fluid pose serious risks, including choking, internal bleeding and chemical burns.
When checking a toy for a baby or toddler, make sure it’s unbreakable and strong enough to withstand chewing.
Also, make sure it doesn’t have:
• Sharp ends or small parts like eyes, wheels or buttons that can be pulled loose;
• Small ends that can extend into the back of the mouth;
• Strings longer than 7 inches (18 centimeters); and
• Parts that could become pinch points for small fingers.
Stuffed animals and other toys that are sold or given away at carnivals, fairs and in vending machines are not required to meet safety standards. Check carnival toys carefully for loose parts and sharp edges before giving them to your infant.

For Grade-Schoolers
Bicycles, scooters, skateboards and inline skates should never be used without helmets that meet current safety standards and other recommended safety gear, like hand, wrist and shin guards. Toy guns should be brightly colored so they cannot be mistaken for real weapons and kids should be taught to never point darts, arrows or guns at anyone.

Toy Safety
After you’ve bought safe toys, it’s also important to make sure kids know how to use them. The best way to do this is by supervising play. Playing with your kids teaches them how to play safely while having fun.
Parents should teach kids to put toys away. Check toys regularly to make sure that they aren’t broken or unusable:
Wooden toys shouldn’t have splinters. Bikes and outdoor toys shouldn’t have rust. Stuffed toys shouldn’t have broken seams or exposed removable parts. Throw away broken toys or repair them right away.

Attacks Prompt Nepal to Cap Wildlife Growth

Officials in Nepal have said they will now have to put a cap on the growth of wildlife, including endangered species like tigers and rhinos.
They say it is a result of significant increase in loss of human lives from attacks by wild animals, BBC reported.
The problem is particularly acute in buffer zones between human settlements and national parks.
In recent years, Nepal has developed a successful protection program for many endangered species.
The Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal has more than 500 rhinos, up from half that figure few years ago, and more than 125 tigers.
The Bardiya National Park in the west now has more than 80 elephants, almost 10 times as many as there were in the 1990s.
In the Himalayas, the numbers of endangered species like snow leopards and red pandas have been growing as well.
And the country has nearly 24 percent of its land area as protected areas, including national parks, conservation areas and wildlife reserves.
With all these achievements in nature conservation, however, Nepal has also witnessed a rising number of human deaths and property losses because of wildlife.
In the last five years, more than 80 people have been killed by wild elephants while 17 of the animals died in retaliatory killings, according to forest ministry officials.
Last month, local people in Chitwan, southern Nepal, staged a strike and demanded that a rogue elephant be killed after it had taken the lives of three people.
A few months ago, a leopard in western Nepal caused terror as it killed more than a dozen people within a matter of weeks.
In eastern Nepal, herds of wild elephants continue to rampage, demolishing human settlements and raiding crops.
Meanwhile, common leopards are increasingly attacking children and livestock in the hilly region.
Further north, in the trans-Himalayan region, locals continue to complain about snow leopards preying on their livestock.

Japan Tsunami Stress Linked to Seizures

In a devastated fishing community in northeastern Japan, the number of seizure patients spiked during the weeks following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, according to a small new study that concludes disasters may put at least some people at heightened risk.
“Stress itself is not a universal risk factor for seizures,” said lead author Dr. Ichiyo Shibahara, a staff neurosurgeon at Sendai Medical Center in Japan, Reuters Health reported.
“Most of the seizure patients had some sort of neurological disease before the earthquake.”
The report, published in Epilepsia, looked at 440 patient records from Kesennuma City Hospital and found that 13 patients were admitted with seizures in the eight weeks after the earthquake and tsunami--and only one had been admitted in the eight weeks prior to the disaster.
That’s nearly twice the average of 7.3 seizure patients admitted during the same 16-week period in the three previous years.
Five of the 13 seizure patients in 2011 were admitted to the hospital just in the first week following the earthquake and tidal wave.
The tsunami flooded a third of Kesennuma, a city of 73,000 residents, but the hospital remained operational in the aftermath.
Previous research has linked stressful life-threatening disasters with an increased risk of seizures, but most case reports lacked clinical data with multiple patients, Shibahara said.
Of the 13 seizure patients admitted after the disaster, 11 had preexisting brain disorders that included epilepsy, head injuries or stroke. All the patients lived independently and eight took anti-convulsion medications.
After the 2011 disaster, Japan started to develop a nationwide epilepsy treatment network that includes a thousand doctors along with information and rescue centers for epilepsy patients.

Sydney Temperature Hits Record

Temperatures in Sydney hit their highest level on record on Friday, with the mercury in Australia’s biggest city reaching 45.8 degrees Celsius (114.4 Fahrenheit) in the mid-afternoon.
Sydney’s previous hottest recorded temperature was 45.3 degrees set in 1939, AFP reported.
“It’s a historic day for Sydney today,” Weather Channel meteorologist Dick Whitaker said.
“We haven’t seen a day like this in Sydney’s recorded history.”
It is the latest record to fall as Australia swelters under a heatwave that has affected some 70 percent of the vast country and has created what some experts have called a “dome of heat” over the nation’s outback centre.
The extreme weather, which has exacerbated bushfires, last week saw the government’s weather bureau upgrade its temperature scale by introducing new colors to cover projected forecast highs.
At one point last week, central Australia was shown with a purple area on the bureau’s forecast map, a new color code suggesting temperatures were set to soar above 50 degrees.
The new scale also features a pink code for even higher temperatures.
Australia’s all-time record temperature is 50.7 degrees, set in January 1960 at Oodnadatta in South Australia state.

Leadership Abilities Inheritable

Like many other inherited traits, leadership can also be passed on through your genes, says new research.
The study, from the University College London, is the first to identify a specific DNA sequence linked with the tendency for individuals to occupy a leadership position, IANS reported.
Using a large twin sample, the team, which included researchers from Harvard, New York and California universities, estimate that a quarter of the observed variation in leadership behavior between individuals can be explained by inherited genes, the journal Leadership Quarterly reports.
“We have identified a genotype, called rs4950, which appears to be associated with the passing of leadership ability down through generations,” said lead author Jan-Emmanuel De Neve (California School of Public Policy), who led the study.
“The conventional wisdom--that leadership is a skill--remains largely true, but we show it is also, in part, a genetic trait.”

China’s Working Population Drops

The number of working-age people in China decreased by 3.45 million to 937.27 million in 2012, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.
Figures released also showed that country’s urbanization rate continued to rise, Xinhua reported.
It is the first time the country has recorded an absolute drop in the working-age population in “a considerable period of time”, said Ma Jiantang, NBS director, at a press conference.
“We need to pay serious attention to this,” he said.
Ma believes the causes lie in China’s changing fertility rate.
The working-age population, which covers ages between 15 and 59, accounted for 69.2 percent of the country’s total population in 2012, down 0.6 percentage points from 2011, the year in which the rate for the first time declined, said Ma.
Ma said he expects China’s working-age population to decrease “steadily and gradually” over a long period or “at least before 2030”.
China’s urban inhabitants accounted for 52.57 percent of the country’s total population at the end of 2012, up 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier, NBS data showed.
China’s population stood at 1.354 billion at the end of last year, increasing 6.69 million in 2012.

Dengue Fastest Spreading Disease

Dengue is the world’s fastest-spreading tropical disease and represents a “pandemic threat”, infecting an estimated 50 million people across all continents, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Transmitted by the bite of female mosquitoes, the disease is occurring more widely due to increased movement of people and goods, including carrier objects such as bamboo plants and used tires, as well as floods linked to climate change, the United Nations agency said.
The viral disease, which affected only a handful of areas in the 1950s, is now present in more than 125 countries--significantly more than malaria, historically the most notorious mosquito-borne disease.
The most advanced vaccine against dengue is only 30 percent effective, trials last year showed.
“In 2012, dengue ranked as the fastest spreading vector-borne viral disease with an epidemic potential in the world, registering a 30-fold increase in disease incidence over the past 50 years,” the WHO said in a statement.
Late last year, Europe’s suffered its first sustained outbreak since the 1920s, with 2,000 people infected on the Portuguese Atlantic island of Madeira.

Longest Journey of Bottle

The bottle with a message thrown by 11-year-old Cade Scott into the North Sea was found by Matthew Ellam, 25, from Perth in Western Australia. It had traveled nearly 10,000 miles in 17 months.