Toy Containing 'Date-Rape' Drug Recalled

It's made in Canada not China:

Millions of Chinese-made toys for children have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful date rape drug when ingested. Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.

With only seven weeks until Christmas, the recall is yet another blow to toy industry - already bruised by a slew of recalls this past summer.

In the United States, the toy goes by the name Aqua Dots, a highly popular holiday toy distributed by Toronto-based Spin Master Toys. They are called Bindeez in Australia, where they were named toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.

The toy beads are sold in general merchandise stores and over the Internet for use in arts and crafts projects. They can be arranged into designs and fused together when sprayed with water.

Scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. When eaten, the compound - made from common and easily available ingredients - can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.

[...]

Naren Gunja from Australia's Poisons Information Center said the drug's effect on children was "quite serious ... and potentially life-threatening."

The recall was announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday several hours after published reports about the recall in Australia.

The two U.S. children who swallowed Aqua Dot beads went into nonresponsive comas, commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said Wednesday afternoon.

Another Mattel Toy Recall

I think it might be time for either parents to stop buying Mattel toys or Mattel to stop making toys in China:

The world's biggest toymaker, Mattel, has announced its third major recall of Chinese-made products in a month.
About three-quarters of a million toys are being recalled because they are decorated with paint containing too much lead, the US company said.

They include Barbie doll accessories and toy trains.

Mattel chairman Bob Eckert apologised again, but stressed the faults had come to light because the company had recently introduced enhanced testing.

[...]

The first two Mattel recalls included Chinese-made Sarge die-cast toys from the Pixar film Cars, as well as some toys including Polly Pocket, which contained small magnets that could come loose.

This seems appropriate:

After watching the video it makes me so glad that my kids missed the whole Dora the Explorer experience. It's bad enough that we had to go through the Barney phase. (When Sarah was a little baby I took her to the mall and watched as a crowd of kids practically worshiped a man in a purple dinosaur costume. I asked a woman standing next to me who was that and she turned, looked at my baby and then at me and said, "That's Barney, you'll be learning about him soon enough." And she turned out to be a prophet of doom. It all gave me a new appreciation for the alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die news group)

Toys "R" Us recalls crayon and paint sets made in China

More recalls due to lead:

Toys "R" Us has recalled 27,000 crayon and paint sets made in China because the packaging of the wooden box contains lead, as does some of the watercolor paint within, company and government officials said Thursday.

No injuries have been reported from the use of the Imaginarium Wooden Coloring Cases, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Maybe it's time to buy toys made in the USA. Here's a list of toys that are still made in the USA and links to sites that only sell US manufactured toys.