Safety: Sharp, Hot Toys

Just in time for Christmas, President Nixon last week signed the Child Protection Act of 1969, a new law giving the Government the right to ban toys that pose “electrical, mechanical or thermal” hazards to youngsters. Now the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare will be able to banish from the market such presently available items as a blowgun that allows the darts to be inhaled, a soldering set that exposes a child to molten lead, a tot-sized cookstove generating heat up to 600″‘, an electric iron with inadequate grounding, a catapult device launching a bird with a sharp beak, and furry animals whose ears attach by long metal pins.