Aqua Dots Flying Off Store Shelves

Just in Time for Christmas

“Aqua Dots Super Studio” was being heavily promoted this season as a fun arts-and-crafts project that combines, “creativity and crafting to create multiple designs – just add water!”

Adding water or saliva is the problem.

In an unusually strong warning, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says that a solvent used to manufacture the toy’s beads at a Chinese plant can, when ingested, convert into a chemical that’s found in the date rape drug known as GHB.

More than four million of the toys, distributed by the Canadian company,  Spin Master are being recalled. They’ve been on store shelves since April and may be in a closet waiting to be wrapped.

In an unusually strong warning, the CPSC says consumers should take the toy away from their child and look for any stray beads that may have fallen from the craft kit.

CPSC’s Julie Vallese says,  "Parents should take this very seriously. The consequences to children who ingest these beads is very serious." 

5 Children Injured   

The CPSC has reports of two U.S. children who swallowed Aqua Dots including a 20-month-old who became dizzy and vomited then slipped into a comatose state.  A second child vomited, went into a coma and was hospitalized for five days.  Both children have recovered.   

Since last week, three Australian children were also hospitalized by the Australian version of the bead toy called Bindeez, Australia’s 2007 Toy of the Year. 

A two-year old boy and 10-year old girl swallowed a quantity of beads and were both admitted to a Sydney hospital. The third child, a 19-month old was also receiving medical help after eating beads.

How It Was Identified

It took detective work by a biochemical geneticist in Sydney to identify the problem  When the first Australian boy was hospitalized, doctors at Children’s Hospital at Westmead first thought he has a genetic disorder or was given illegal drugs by a family member.

But Dr. Kevin Carpenter looked further. Using a mass spectrometer he saw a large peak of a “substance I didn’t recognize,” the New York Times reports. A urine sample found GHB. After two days the compound dissipated from the boy’s system confirming the symptoms were not genetic.

Bindeez has been pulled from store shelves in Australia. Moose Enterprises, maker of Bindeez says the toy was made at a Shenzhen factory in China.  Moose will reissue the toy but put a foul tasting ingredient on the beads.

Moose has shipped Bindeez to 40 countries. In Britain, the toy is marketed by Flair Leisure Products Plc of Britain but a company spokesman says an independent lab failed to find any 1,4 butanediol in that country’s version. The beads in that product were purchased from a different Chinese supplier.

It’s up to individual countries whether or not to recall the product. So far, besides the U.S. Aqua Dots, also known as Aqua Beads, are also being recalled in Canada. 

How Contamination Happened

GHB or Gama hydroxyl butyrate is naturally found in the human nervous system as well in citrus fruits and wine.

Small doses are considered safe and are used to treat alcoholism, as a weight loss tool, a sedative and general anesthetic. But high does can cause unconsciousness and convulsions, vomiting and reduced respiration. 

And known on the streets as Juice or Liquid Ecstasy, GHB is a clear, odorless, salty liquid that can easily be masked in a drink to reduce inhibitions and induce a deep sleep. It is commonly used in raves and clubs as a date rape drug.

1,4-Butanediol is a solvent, commonly used as a raw material in factories to manufacture of some types of plastics and is converted into GHB after human ingestion. 

News reports have called the compound by both names, but they are similar compounds according to the book, Drugs of Abuse.

Lawmakers point to this latest recall, just in time for Christmas, as another dose of harsh reality about the lacking safety standards among foreign plants, the failing oversight by domestic retailers and a regulatory agency that is the dog being wagged by the industry tail. They have proposed Senate Bill 2045.

Hearings began in October on the CPSC Reform Act of 2007 sponsored by Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas. The bill would modernize the CPSC by increasing funding and regulatory powers of the federal health and safety agency with the smallest staff and budget of any agency charged with protecting American’s health.#