Yesterday, Bethany told us that Australia recalled Bindeez toys for containing the 'date-rape' drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. Well it seems that today the U.S. has followed suit by recalling the popular toy Aqua Dots for the same reason.

Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads from the toys. Shockingly,
these toys were found to contain a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape" drug when ingested. In the United States, the toy goes by the name Aqua Dots, a highly popular holiday toy distributed by Toronto-based Spin Master Toys. It is called Bindeez in Australia, where ironically it was named toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.

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. It's reported that the toys were supposed to use 1,5-pentanediol, a nontoxic compound found in glue, but instead contained the harmful 1,4-butanediol, which is widely used in cleaners and plastics and happens to be much less expensive than pentanediol. Both chemicals are manufactured in China.

To prevent any other child from being hurt, parents should take the product away from children immediately. Sadly, to my horrification, my boys actually had these Aqua Dots -- the glow in the dark kind -- on their Christmas list.

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Although the Chinese-made toy recall is pretty much a second-tier issue in the media at this time, kids that have a lower exposure to the lead amount deemed safe by the U.S. government may still have lower IQs and other problems, according to a new report from the CDC in Atlanta.

The standard for lead poisoning exposure is not a new one, and it confounds me on why newer times don't dictate newer exposure guidelines for certain substances based on new rounds of evidence and research.

As more toys are "consumed" by parents for their kids, they'll still be made, by and large, in China. Are lead concerns going to vanish tomorrow? No -- and the questions and concerns should escalate from parents. Maybe change will happen.

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More bad news from China, as another round of recalls related to lead-based paint on toys has been announced.

This time, more children's jewelry and cake decorations were recalled from shelves late this past week due to -- you guessed it -- excessive lead amounts.

About 665.000 products were announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Thursday, including 38,000 Go Diego Go products from Mattel. On the list as well were roughly 142,000 Halloween pails sold at Family Dollar Stores from August through October.

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The Chinese state media again is stating that toy company Mattel is to blame for the recent toy recall that has risen awareness about the quality of Chinese-produced goods.

While I don't dispute that Mattel is negligent here, the primary blame is with the Chinese suppliers who can't seem to keep dangerous cross-contamination of chemicals from a plethora of consumer products sold around the world.

China's deft reaction this week reminds me of a wolverine backed into a corner -- it's striking back as it is provoked. Still, these Chinese companies must not have stringent quality control at all, but then again, neither does Mattel apparently.

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In the most recent news about the various product recalls coming out of China, the country has now laid partial blame on American companies for selling recalled toys.

While I don't dispute that argument (to a point), the majority of the blame rests solely on Chinese vendors and OEM manufacturers who apparently have little to no quality control or safety check system over exported goods. Toothpastes, dog food components, lead paint on toys and food poisoning are just a few examples. How did these escape Chinese safety checks?

It's true that there needs to be more than one line of defense here -- manufacturers, importers and retailers all need to be in on the game. But when China has a knee-jerk reaction to problems created in its own country with products made there, I have to call shenanigans at least a little bit.

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Although the massive toy recall currently in progress from the likes of Fisher Price and Mattel may be swaying some parents from buying toys at the moment, these problems still won't end up deterring many of them from buying similar toys (according to parental feedback this week).

Why, you may ask? Well, the parents in question say that American companies that branded and marketed the toys were as much to blame as the Chinese factories which created them. I agree with this -- if lead paint was put on toys in Chinese factories and the actual companies had no outside quality control to check for things like this, they are just as much to blame.

Will you stop buying toys for your kids? Probably not -- but is it time to actually research toys and buy ones from known good sources (non-Chinese), even if it means fewer toys (non-mainstream, most likely) but with higher quality?

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