From Parenting Magazine:

Mattel has voluntarily recalled 9 million toys including popular characters such as Barbie, Batman, Polly Pockets, and a toy from the movie “Cars” because of safety hazards to children. Mattel has ordered the toys to be immediately taken away from children and removed from store shelves.

All recalled toys were manufactured in China.

The recall includes 7.3 million Polly Pocket dolls and accessories with magnets; 1 million Doggie Daycare play sets; about 683,000 Barbie and Tanner play sets; and 345,000 Batman and One Piece magnetic action figure sets. These toys have small magnetic parts that can come loose and be swallowed by children. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, if more than one magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract each other and cause intestinal perforation or blockage, which can be fatal. There have been three reports of children who suffered intestinal perforations, requiring surgery, after swallowing more than one magnet. [full text]

I was thinking for a while that we were going to be safe on this, because most of our toys are from our first daughter and are not new enough to be part of these recalls. We have a lot of Polly Pocket stuff, though. I am also wondering about the MacDonald’s Happy Meal and Burger King toys — Polly Pocket ones, the Dora the Explorer. The Dora the Explorer I’m looking at now says “Manufactured for Burger King Corp 2004 Viacom International. Made in China.” I guess this is not a Mattel toy, so it is not a concern. But the “Made in China” part is what scares me.

A full list of the Mattel toys being recalled is available here.