Why do we have Lead Paint in toys today??

I get e-mail updates from NBC 5 Chicago.  To day I received one titled “Fisher-Price To Recall Almost 1 Million Toys Worldwide.”  I open it up, worried because I have a 2 year old daughter, and find out that they are recalling 83 types of toys that had “excessive amounts of lead.”

1. What is excessive.  I would think that any amount of lead in paint on a children’s toy would be considered excessive.
2. How do you let almost 1 million toys with a possible health issue into circulation.  Doesn’t a major company test that sort of stuff before they but their toys into production?  Aren’t there government standards that they have to add hear to that forbid the use of lead paint?

What scared me even more is they fact that some of they toys they mentioned were the very popular toys: Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego.  My daughter is a huge Dora fan.  For her birthday in April, I think she received the whole line of Dora toys.  Now, my wife and I are going to have to go threw all of her toys and pull out any of the ones on the list, which will get her upset, and there is nothing worse than a two year old when your taking away her favorite toys.

Does any one have a good suggestion on how to take almost half of a two year olds toys from them with out a screaming kid?

For those of you with kids, Mattel customer service, who owns Fisher-Price can be found here.