Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) –Zhang Shuhong, chief of Lee Der Industrial Company Limited, one of the companies involved in the toxic toy scandals has killed himself, local media reports.  His company made over 967 thousand toys which the US giant Mattel Incorporated withdrew from stores because they were made with a paint with excessive levels of lead and destined for infants.  They were very popular Fisher-Price toys, such as Big Bird, Dora, Diego, Elmo. The company has defended itself saying it was duped by the paint suppliers, who had assured it that its product was above board. On August 9th the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, banned their exportation. On August 11th Zhang was found after he had hung himself in a warehouse.

Most of the toys sold on the US market are made in China but in recent months their has been a wave of controversy surrounding their safety. In June RC 2 Corporation New York rejected 1.5 million wooden train tracks in wood because painted with lead paints, made by Hansheng Wood Products Factory, another company now under an export ban.

Beijing defends itself saying that its products are of a high quality and in general much better than other nations and that only a few companies produce low quality or false goods.  But the main problem rests that often the factories have many different suppliers, making it difficult to control the quality of the primary materials, components, chemical additives or food stuffs.  Either way, the recent wave of scandals have hit companies which export a large quantity of their products and which up until now, had been considered more respectful of security standards than those who produce for the local market.  The mainland makes 75 per cent of the world's toys, A 2005 report in a Beijing newspaper cited estimates that 60 per cent of mainland-made toys used paint with lead above internationally accepted limits. A study of mainland cities in 2004 found that 10.5 per cent of children had lead levels in their blood of at least 100 micrograms per litre - a level considered unhealthy by the World Health Organisation.