CEDAR FALLS - Deb Kroll knows a lot about toys.

As the owner of Peek-A-Boo, a childrens gifts and toys store in downtown Cedar Falls, Kroll stocks clothing, furniture and tons of toys on her shelves.

For 10 years, she has dealt with periodic recalls. She keeps in contact with everyone from the customers who ask about hazardous toys to the vendors who sell the toys, and gets updates from the Consumer Product Safety Commission recall list to make sure she and her customers are informed.

But 2007 has been a record year for toy recalls. Fisher-Price, Mattel and other large American companies, many of whom manufacture and assemble their products overseas, have issued huge recalls this fall of some popular toys due to hazardous amounts of lead.

And toy store owners, as well as consumers, feel the impact.

"Obviously, the big companies dropped the ball," Kroll said, adding she doesn't carry Fisher-Price or Mattel products.

In fact, only one product in Kroll's store has been recalled - a spinning top made by Schylling Associates in 2000 - for high levels of lead paint.

But the concern surrounding the mass recalls beginning in October has many customers asking questions. Kroll is happy to provide answers to alleviate customers' fears.

"Being a small store, I have a relationship with my vendors and my customers," she said. "If I question anything, it won't be on my shelf."

While it is relatively easy for Kroll to keep Peek-A-Boo in check, bigger toy retailers face a bigger challenge. Toys 'R' Us, which keeps its own recall list of products for its stores worldwide, has recalled nearly 200 products since July, amounting to millions of toys, several due to high lead concentrations.

Among the recalled toys are popular items such as Mattel's Barbie and Polly Pocket, Fisher-Price's Dora the Explorer toys and Spin Master's Aquadots, as well as vinyl Hamco bibs, various infant car seats and even a potty training seat by RC2 Corporation - for reasons ranging from lead to unsafe magnets to sharp edges.

In an open letter to the public on the Toys 'R' Us Web site, Chairman and CEO Gerald Storch reassured customers the company is conducting independent testing of toys on its shelves, advocating for more funding for the CPSC and accepting recalled toys from any customer, even those without receipts who did not purchase the toy at a Toys 'R' Us.

"Our message is clear: (T)here is simply no place for unsafe toys on our store shelves," Storch wrote.

Dr. Brian Sims, a pediatrician at Covenant Clinic in Cedar Falls, found himself among the millions of parents having to take his children's toys away from them because of the recalls.

"I have a bag full of Thomas the Train (toys) - we're not playing with them anymore," Sims said.

Neither Sims nor Dr. Kyle Christiason, a family physician at Cedarloo Family Practice, know of any local cases of lead poisoning from toys. Doctors are more likely to see cases of lead poisoning from where children ingest paint chips from old houses.

"Toys are generally safe," Sims said. "We have product safety commissions out there doing their best to make sure the toys we're buying are safe, (and) parents have to use common sense."

Lead poisoning, which happens when a product containing high levels of lead is ingested through the mouth, nose, eyes or breaks in the skin, is difficult to detect. Normally, symptoms of poisoning - abdominal pain, vomiting, malaise, behavioral changes - are mild and show up over a period of several years, or often not at all.

"Lead poisoning has no symptoms," Christiason said. "That slow exposure, as a rule, is hidden."

Pediatricians check children for lead poisoning on their first birthday by administering a simple finger-prick blood test. The results are then sent off to the state hygienic lab. Concerned parents and guardians may also take children to the doctor if they suspect poisoning for additional testing.

Acceptable levels of lead, according to Sims, are around 10 micrograms per deciliter, or 100 parts per billion, of lead in the blood. Any more than that, and doctors will follow up to check where the source of lead is coming from.

In extreme cases, lead poisoning can result in learning disabilities, schizophrenia and even death.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, of Waterloo has taken up the toy recall crusade, staging press conferences around his congressional district to encourage people to check recall lists diligently and visit his Web site to sign a letter to the acting chairman of CPSC, Nancy Nord, urging her to take "aggressive action" to hold toy companies accountable.

"In November alone, there were 16 toys recalled, and 15 of them came from China. That illustrates the problem," Braley said.

Braley also supports HR 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act, introduced on Nov. 1, that would modernize the CPSC and establish safety standards for consumer products, especially children's products.

It is estimated that over 85 percent of toys on the shelves in the United States are made in China, where worker protections and safety standards aren't as high as in the U.S. Moving production overseas allows manufacturers to lower their prices.

"It's consumer-driven," Kroll, Peek-A-Boo's owner, said. "They're enjoying lower prices, but quality is decreased. It's us as buyers doing that."

Contact Amie Steffen at (319) 291-1464 or amie.steffen@wcfcourier.com.