Mattel's recall of 18.2 million products, including Barbie playsets, Polly Pocket, Dora the Explorer, Fisher Price and Sesame Street toys (and just this week -- Sponge Bob Square Pants toys) is just the tip of the iceberg.

Mattel takes pride in its position as the world's most trusted

If a company as careful with toy quality as Mattel can be caught off-guard with safety issues from toys manufactured in China, how much more for other toys being sold in our country?

Apart from the Mattel recall, several toy companies also announced recalls of products ranging from bibs to children's address books.

The Department of Health warns parents to look for the "PS" product safety seal in all the items they buy, including toys for children.

Yet, how many of the toys we see in stores, discount shops, and the "bangketa" carry the PS mark?

The big toy companies may be announcing a recall, but who is going to recall the millions of cheap plastic dolls and other toys purchased in discount stores and Divisoria?

Many of these toys are cheap rip-offs of licensed characters sourced from China.

China's safety problems stem from a lack of any credible monitoring process.

It's a big country, with hundreds of thousands of small manufacturers, operating in a largely unregulated environment.

Documentary fraud is rife. Chinese manufacturers gleefully put down on paper anything that the buyer wants to see, whether or not that's really what's in the product. That's like buying a Diploma in Recto University.

Mattel's specifications called for lead free paint, their contract manufacturer sought out a supplier of lead-free paint-- his best friend, who betrayed him by substituting cheaper leaded paint.

Sometimes these substitutions can be deadly, as was the case with the rampant substitution of toxic diethylene glycol instead of the safe glycerine in toothpastes, cough syrups, and hair care products.

I'm not so worried about the brand name toothpastes, it's the discount specials, and the free toothpaste tubes in the hotels that I'm worried about.

Haven't you noticed that some hotel toothpaste seem to have a slightly different texture? There has already been a recall by a supplier of hotel toothpastes.

In some cases, the manufacturer unilaterally changes the design without informing the buyer, as in the case of the 450,000 China made tires recalled last month in the US.

The agreed upon design required a "gum strip" to hold the tire belts in place in use.

The manufacturer conveniently decided to omit the gum strip in later revisions of the design, resulting in a tire that did not meet safety standards.

How many of these substitutions and safety omissions are occurring is anyone's guess.

China is the Wild West when it comes to manufacturing standards. It's a problem they will have to fix, and will eventually.

In the meantime, it's up to our own regulators to ensure the safety of locally available products through tests and monitoring of available products.

It used to be easy to tell where a product originated:

American products proudly proclaimed "Made in the USA," Japanese electronics proudly announced "Made in Japan," and Philippine goods proudly stated "Philippine Made."

Now, things are not so clear. Many products in the supermarket say "Distributed by (name of company)," or "Made for (name of company)," but not where it is actually made.

Where are these "Made for (name of company)" really made?

If they're made by someone else, did the brand owner validate the manufacturers claims with independent tests, or did they just rely on a document from the "honest" manufacturer?

If I recall correctly, there's supposed to be a country of origin label on the item, not merely an ambiguous "Distributed by..." or "Made for..." Yet, many supermarket goods, and bangketa goods don't mention their true country of origin.

In fact, that labelling should be extended to include sourcing of ingredients, e.g. "Made in the Philippines with ingredients from China, Australia, and the United States."

That would be clearer, and more helpful to the consumer. It would certainly make it easier to act if there's another product safety scare. (ALEX S. TIMBOL)