Aqua Dots' drug problem
By Staff -- Playthings, 11/6/2007 11:39:00 AM
EAST BENTLEIGH, Australia—Moose Enterprises is recalling its award winning Bindeez craft system—sold by Spin Master as Aqua Dots in the U.S.—in its home country following incidents there in which children, having swallowed Bindeez beads, were sickened after a chemical in the beads metabolized into gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), the drug better known as “Liquid Ecstasy,” according to media reports.
Today, product safety regulators in the Australian state of New South Wales called for an interim ban on the product, according to The Australian, the country's largest newspaper, after two separate incidents in which children were hospitalized after swallowing “a large number of beads.”
In a statement released today, Moose said that following a review of ingredients used in the production of its Bindeez beads, some batches “[did] not exactly match the laboratory tested and approved formula.” The company said that substitutions of chemicals used to make the beads “was not at any time approved by Moose, nor was Moose made aware of any substitution by the supplier.”
Moose has not publicly named its bead supplier.
According to the company, it will add Bitrex, a foul-tasting ingredient, to its beads’ formulation in order to discourage children from ingesting Bindeez beads in the future. All replacement beads and new shipments will include the ingredient.
The Bindeez/Aqua Dots system lets kids create art using beads that chemically fuse together after being sprayed with water. The line’s core product, Super Station (pictured), was recently named the 2007 Toy of the Year by the Australian Toy Association.
As this story was published, Aqua Dots had not yet been recalled in the U.S.
Spin Master did not return Playthings' requests for comment on the situation in time for this story's deadline.
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