Obviously, we were surprised to hear about all these issues. Our immediate reaction as brands and as manufacturers was to make sure that.... For example, on behalf of my company, we knew that we had certain policies and procedures in place, but our immediate reaction was that the frequency of testing was accelerated tremendously. Where we used to do it every month or every other month, we now do it on a weekly basis. That's one reaction that has taken place, and it has taken place on behalf of the whole industry. The second thing is that a lot of companies started doing unannounced audits in factories.
In addition to the two steps I mentioned, there was also the retail community. They were very scared and apprehensive about the recalls because they were directly affected in their supply chain. They were directly affected by it. They started reacting with additional testing on their own behalf, because in order to bring the product to the United States or Europe, you had to do additional testing for those retailers.
So in the course of about six to seven months, it was not unusual to see one single toy being tested 15 to 20 times. While the United States government as well as the European governments were looking for additional measures, they also imposed lower levels of lead. We have to comply with those levels.
In addition to that, the Chinese government became very vigilant in factories that were not using good quality management systems and practices. In the summer of 2007, there were about 7,200 toy factories in operation in China. There are now 3,500 factories as a result of the Chinese government cracking down by either removing their export licences or by companies just simply going out of business. We're down to 3,500 factories in China now.
Those are the types of things that have happened.
I did not address the magnets in your question. I'll say quickly that we have developed a worldwide standard, or a U.S., ISO, and European standard for magnets. Health Canada is well aware of it. As a matter of fact, they have participated in some of our meetings. We would encourage them to adopt a standard that I think is very sound and will prevent additional injuries from magnets.