Personal Injury Law

Toy Injury ? Aqua Dots

Orlando injury lawyers must be on constant vigil in toy injury claims involving young children. Recently, the federal safety officials have recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots bead toys that contain a chemical that has caused some children to vomit and become comatose after swallowing them.

Scientists have found the popular toy's coating contains a chemical that, once metabolized, converts into the toxic "date rape" drug GHB, or gamma-hydroxy butyrate, according to a statement by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.The arts and craft beads, aimed at children 4 years and older, have been selling since April at major U.S. retail stores as "Aqua Dots" and elsewhere under the name "Bindeez Beads."

Anyone with Aqua Dots at home should throw them out, as instructed by the CPSC. The toy was named toy of the year in Australia and recently made Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s list of top 12 Christmas toys.However, Wal-Mart moved to list Aqua Dots on its Web site as "out of stock online" and removed them from its top toy list.

Toronto-based toy distributor Spin Master Ltd. stopped shipping Aqua Dots and asked retailers to pull them off their shelves, where they had sold for $17 to $30. Melbourne-based Moose Enterprise Pty. Ltd. recalled Bindeez Beads on Tuesday after three children in Australia swallowed large quantities of the beads and were hospitalized.

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

Full post as published by Orlando Injury Lawyer Blog on November 02, 2007 (boomark / email).