There are still some scary toys out there, but not as many as last year.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—It appears that Mr. Squiggles will not harm your child. The tiny robotic hamster, part of the popular line of Zhu Zhu Pets that has already sold out in many toy stores this season, was tested by a small nonprofit called GoodGuide based at the University of California, Berkeley. After announcing that the cuddly robot had levels of the heavy metal antimony higher than the government allows (and coping with the public uproar that followed), GoodGuide has retracted its statement, saying that its researchers had used a different testing method than toy manufacturers use and that they shouldn't have compared their results with federal standards. Both the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the toy's manufacturer have released toxicology reports finding Mr. Squiggles to be squeaky-clean.

The flap may never have come about had it not been for a new law, enacted in February of this year, that limits the quantities of lead and certain types of phthalates, hormone-disrupting chemicals added to soft vinyl products to keep them flexible, in toys marketed to children under 12, and that requires toy manufacturers to test for other hazardous materials (such as antimony) before putting them on the market. Given the dearth of toy recalls this year compared with years past, it appears that the law is working. But based on the results of another nonprofit's toy testing, parents shouldn't get too relaxed.

THE DETAILS: The Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Michigan–based nonprofit devoted to environmental health issues, runs a website called HealthyToys.org, for which they test toys for levels of harmful heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, antimony, and cadmium, as well as for the presence of chlorine, which indicates that a product is made with the toxic plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and the presence of bromine, which indicates that a product may contain harmful brominated flame retardants. In its latest results, published last week, the group reported that, on the whole, toy manufacturers are reforming their ways and complying with the new regulations. "We found that far fewer toys have elevated levels of lead," says Tracey Easthope, the Ecology Center's environmental health director. "That's really a big deal and should be comforting to parents. It demonstrates that regulations do work and that toy manufacturers can meet them and can make fun, safe toys without toxic chemicals."