The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that one of the Chinese owners of the toy manufacturer tied to the Mattel, Inc. recall of 1.5 million toys committed suicide Aug. 11. Cheung Shu-hung, an owner of Lee Der Industrial Co., killed himself at his Chinese factory. It is not clear if the suicide is related to the recall, according the WSJ article, but Mattel revealed late last week that Lee Der was the manufacturer of the recalled toys, which may have been coated with excessive levels of lead-based paint. After the Aug. 2 recall, China announced that Lee Der was prevented from exporting its products and was being investigated. Chinese manufacturers face intense cost pressures and may be facing huge losses as U.S. companies begin to look elsewhere for their products. An Aug. 11 Washington Post story cited instances of U.S toy retailers looking to purchase more goods from domestic and E.U. sources, although many of their holiday orders for goods have already been placed. E.U. manufacturers have higher safety standards than the U.S. and test products made in China before exporting them. The Post also reports that the Toy Industry Association is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to write legislation that makes testing mandatory for all toys. As we noted last week, CPSC has just had its full powers legislatively restored temporarily. If the two groups working together propose steps away from the current voluntary approach, it would be a great leap forward.