WASHINGTON, DC — Mattel, one of the companies whose toy recalls spurred new lead laws in the United States, will be allowed to use an additional two of its in-house laboratories to test its products instead of third-party labs.

The Consumer Product Safety Act requires companies that make products for kids to have them tested for lead content by either independent, third-party laboratories or in-house laboratories that meet certain requirements, such as being protected from influence by the manufacturer that owns it.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) last week recognized two of Mattel's labs in Thailand and China as such "firewalled testing laboratories," adding onto the seven Mattel labs that the CPSC recognized last year.

A series of high-profile toys recalls starting in 2007 prompted stricter federal rules on how much lead and phthalates are allowed in products intended for kids. Mattel and its Fisher-Price subsidiary had recalled about 2 million toys that contained high levels of lead, and agreed to pay $12 million as part of a lawsuit settlement over the recalls.

Although the CPSC scrutinizes in-house labs to see if they would provide the same or greater consumer safety protection than third-party labs, the CPSC's decisions on Mattel's labs have riled some smaller toy makers who will have to start paying for tests on their products next year and see the exceptions being made for Mattel as unfair.

_{Mattel sign - http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorenjavier/ / CC BY-ND 2.}