Edward M. Swartz, at 76; lawyer fought for toy safety
Attorney News 2010/09/07 09:32
Boston lawyer Edward M. Swartz, a product safety advocate who garnered national headlines with his annual list of the 10 toys he deemed most dangerous, died Saturday from congestive heart failure at his home in the Brookline section of Chestnut Hill. He was 76.
Mr. Swartz, a Chelsea native who put himself through law school in the 1950s and began publishing the dangerous toys list in the early 1970s, won multimillion-dollar judgments for clients injured by defective products ranging from little toy people to pools.
“Millions of parents have lost a great defender against the broadening variety of toys that expose children at a very young age to toxic harm, physical harm, or explosive harm,’’ Ralph Nader, a fellow product safety crusader, said yesterday.
Known as “the Nader of the nursery,’’ Mr. Swartz “really related to the victims, the children,’’ Nader said. “Here’s this innocent child wanting to experience joy from a toy that their parents have given them . . . and suddenly they’re on their way to the emergency room or worse. He had a lot of empathy in this way.’’
Mr. Swartz appeared on many national talk shows over the years and was known for flamboyant tactics. At a 1997 news conference, he grabbed a Spider-Man Web Blaster and covered a toy industry executive with stringy foam. The executive later contended the incident showed the gun was safe.
