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Canadian retailers were scrambling to clear their shelves of 20 Fisher-Price toys, many of them featuring the popular Dora and Diego characters, that may be coated in hazardous amounts of lead paint.

The move came one day after U.S. toy maker Mattel Inc. issued a global recall of 967,000 Fisher-Price plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the North American market starting in May. The Chinese contract manufacturer used a non-approved paint that may contain excessive amounts of lead, which can lead to health problems.

David Allmark, General Manager of Fisher Price Inc., estimates that around 42,000 of those toys are in Canada, although some could still be in transit or sitting in customer warehouses. He does not know how much of the overall amount has already been bought by Canadians, but estimates that only one-third of the overall U.S. inventory has been sold.

“We are extremely embarrassed by this and we are sorry for this,” Mr. Allmark said Thursday. He noted that so far there have been no incidents of children getting sick from any of the recalled toy products.

The highly publicized product recall will affect Mattel's bottom line. The company, based in El Segundo, Calif., revealed in a filing with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday that it expects to adjust its second-quarter results to reflect a $30-million (U.S.) charge. “There can be no assurance that additional issues will not be identified,” the company said. Mattel also said it was reviewing the procedures of all of its manufacturing partners in China.

Among the 20 toys that were affected in the Canadian recall are the Sesame Street Shape Sorter, Dora's Talking Vamonos Van and Diego's Talking Gadget Belt.

Hillary Marshall, a spokeswoman for Hudson's Bay Company, confirmed that its Bay and Zellers stores carry Fisher Price products. “We have removed, or are in the process of removing, the products affected by the recall,” she said.

Sears Canada Inc. stocks 14 of the 20 items on the recall list. Spokeswoman Katarina Kristanic said they are still determining how many of their customers were affected. “But we don't expect it will be large number because it was such a short time frame,” she said.

Sears will send its catalogue customers a letter about the toy recall and plans to post signs in its stores, Ms. Kristanic said. It advised customers who have the toy products to stop their children from using them immediately and to contact the company to receive a voucher for a replacement toy.

Wal-Mart Canada could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Sue Cumming, a Toronto mother of a seven-year-old boy, says the children playing with the preschool-age toys are at an age where they often put them in their mouths. “That is very concerning,” she said.

“When parents buy consumer products we do some research and make sure we are buying them from a company that has a good reputation,” she said. “So, to learn that a toy you have bought for them is potentially damaging or dangerous is very alarming.”

Ms. Cumming, who has bought Dora toys for her two nieces, said she would not only think twice about buying Fisher Price merchandise again, but plans to be even more careful in the future when buying any toy from any company.

Although this is the first lead paint recall for Mattel, it is just the latest in a series of mishaps that have raised concern about the safety of products made in China. In June, U.S.-based RC2 Corp. recalled about 1.5 million Thomas the Tank Engine wooden railway toys because of lead-based paint.

Mr. Allmark said that it is unusual for Fisher Price products to get to the marketplace with breached safety conditions. “Unfortunately, this is a case where it did get through to retail and we are re-examining our process to make sure this never ever happens again,” he said.

With files from Reuters.