Breaking News: Aqua Dots Toy Recall

We thought we'd heard every reason in the book for toy recalls, from lead paint to choking hazards. But the latest one is scary for a whole new reason: Spin Master just announced a recall of around 4.2 million Aqua Dots toys for possibly containing the date-rape drug. Yes, that's right...the already popular toy (which was on the top of my niece's wish-list, I kid you not) has beads that can turn toxic if swallowed, causing vomiting, seizures, and unconsciousness, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Aqua Dots are similar to the Australian toy, Bindeez, which was just banned in that country after three kids were hospitalized. No surprises here: the Aqua Dots toys are made in China. I'm scared to think of what is coming next. Isn't it way past time to enact tougher standards for toys?    

Comments

[Jenn]

All of these recalls are making me crazy, the CPSC email I got yesterday had eight of them. What is this world coming to when we don't know if the toys we are buying are really safe to give our kids. There has got to be a way for things to be better, they find ways to infringe on such simple things in our lives but toys geez!

[Teri S.]

With the amount of $ they charge for the toys, you'd think the products would be safer than they are. Seems like you just can't trust any of the manufacturers lately. I know they need to make money, but it shouldn't be at our children's expense!

[Wendy]

I rarely respond to these; however, I felt compelled to do so this morning. I too am on the CPSC list serve for recalled products (http://www.cpsc.gov - I highly recommend it as not all of the recalls listed here gain widespread media coverage) & I am alarmed at the number of toys recalled EVERYDAY (although as noted by Jenn yesterday was a big one). Only one toy that was recalled has come from someplace other than China & that was a voluntary recall because the manufacturer had received complaints of breakage of small pieces. In our family we stopped buying ANYTHING manufactured in China a few months back (I have been known to search the tags and information of a product for 20 minutes in the store to find out who made it & where it came from) - this has been difficult & has alarmed us at the vast number of products we rely on that country to produce. Clearly the Chinese companies have little regard for American safety standards - otherwise we would not have seen & continue to see the number of recalls that we have seen this year. However, the American companies are not without blame - given that we outsource so much of our manufacturing to save costs, etc. our own companies need to police the manufacturers better. There should be at least one American inspector at each place manufacturing things for America to ensure compliance with our safety regulations. One would think this would be more cost efficient than recalling products on a daily or weekly basis. The biggest toy companies who keep recalling hundreds of thousands of toys can certainly police the companies they contract with better than they have been - but until that time the top three companies are not getting this family's business.

[Michelle Q]

This is so far beyond disturbing that it literally turns my stomach . . ..

[Michael Parkatti]

Hasn’t anyone considered that the labels of the toys were clearly marked as appropriate for ‘Date Rapists’ only??

http://www.humblenarrator.com/2007/11/08/importers-tainted-chinese-kids-toys-clearly-labeled-for-date-rapists-aged-5/

[Layla]

NO, not the AquaDots!!! These are such a HOT Christmas item too. Target had it on sale in its leaked Black Friday flyer. My kids have been begging for them! I hope nobody got too sick/injured from these things!

[Andrea]

This is insane!! My kids have been begging for these. Thank God everytime I looked for them I was unable to find them.