Americans will never admit it, but there can be such a thing as too much safety – even when it comes to toys from China. At the best of times, America’s attitude to its children borders on saccharine sentimentality (I should know: I have two of them). But after this year’s bumper crop of Chinese toy recalls, parental hysteria has hit new levels – with emotion and politics threatening to pollute rational debate on how best to solve the toy crisis.

For starters, millions of American children suddenly find themselves plaintiffs in massive lawsuits that aim to force Mattel, the giant toymaker, to pay for lead testing for every child “exposed” to toxic toys from China. Several competing class action lawsuits demanding the “medical monitoring” of children who played with recalled Mattel toys have been filed around the country, and on Wednesday a California judge will consider whether to centralise them all in one court.