Enough with the Chinese made toy recalls...
 

You know, this really angers me because Sara has had Aqua Dots, and some of the other lead based painted toys. I think the US should suspend the import of Chinese made toys until they have their act together over there. Granted, she's too old to be sticking stuff in her mouth, but trust me, at this age, (she'll be 9) you never know what they're thinking.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/08/toy.recall/index.html

NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. safety officials have voluntarily recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots toys contaminated with a powerful "date rape" drug that has caused some children to vomit and lose consciousness upon ingesting the contents.


Bindeez, which were named Australia's toy of the year, contain a chemical that converts into a "date rape" drug.

Scientists have found the highly popular holiday toy contains a chemical that, once metabolized, converts into the toxic "date rape" drug GHB (gamma-hydroxy butyrate), U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) spokesman Scott Wolfson told CNN.

"Children who swallow the beads can become comatose, develop respiratory depression or have seizures," a CPSC statement warned.

"Anyone with Aqua Dots at home should throw them out," CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said. The toy was named toy of the year in Australia and recently made Wal-Mart Store Inc's list of top 12 Christmas toys.

Wal-Mart on Thursday listed Aqua Dots on its Web site as "out of stock online" and had removed the toy from its top toy list as well.

The arts and craft beads, aimed at children four years and older, have been selling since April at major U.S. retail stores as "Aqua Dots" and in Australia under the name "Bindeez Beads."

Toronto-based toy distributor Spin Master Ltd. stopped shipping the Aqua Dots toys and asked retailers to pull them off their shelves, where they had sold for $17-$30. "I was so frightened because I thought she wasn't going to make it," Heather Lehane told CNN affiliate Network 7 of her 10-year-old daughter, Charlotte, who was among those children.

In the United States, the Washington-based safety commission said it has in recent days received two reports detailing the severe effects of the digested beads.

The CPSC said a boy nearly two years old "swallowed several dozen beads. He became dizzy and vomited several times before slipping into a comatose state for a period of time." The toddler was hospitalized and has since "fully recovered," the commission added.


In the second incident, a child vomited, fell into a coma and was hospitalized for five days. It was not immediately clear whether the child had made a full recovery.

The recall is the latest to target Chinese-made toys. Last month, U.S. government safety officials and retailers voluntarily recalled at least 69,000 Chinese-made toys over concerns of excessive amounts of lead paint, which can cause lead poisoning.

Right
 

I just saw the thing about the aqua dots today. I don't know if it's such a good idea to advertise that they act like a date rape drug though. There are people who will try to get them now that they know what they can do. As bad as all of these recalls are, I still can't help but wonder how we survived childhood? I mean, I never ate a weeble wobble, but now they make them so damn big you can barely palm the thing, let alone fit them in your mouth. I think that maybe too many people expect these industries to be responsible for something that parents used to do.

We need to seriously renogiate our trade agreements with China. It's not just toys but food and as well. We are in a very precarious position with China because they own a huge chunk of our treasury bonds. If they ever decided to unload them, it would throw our economy into a tailspin (not that it's doing that great now).

Why do people still shop there? :confused: