More ill from ‘date rape drug’ toy
Toxic substance coating toy cheaper than chemical originally meant to be used.
An 18-month-old boy from Newcastle in New South Wales state became the fourth Australian child hospitalised in recent weeks after allegedly swallowing beads from the popular product, Linda Burney, the state’s fair trading minister, said.
Six more families in the US also reported their children ill, adding to two earlier cases.
Same factory
Peter Mahon, a spokesman for Moose Enterprises which sells the toys in Australia, said the company was conducting an internal investigation to determine how the chemical came to be included in Bindeez and Aqua Dots, which are made at the same factory in Shenzhen in China‘s Guangdong province.
Affected toys |
‘Date rape’ drug chemical: Lead poisoning:
Dizzy Ducks music boxes, Winnie-the-Pooh spinning tops, Big Red wagons, Dragster and Funny Car and Duck Family wind-up toys, Pull-Back Action Toy Cars
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He said the “ingredients were switched at the point of manufacture without Moose’s knowledge”.
Spin Master, the Toronto company which distributes the toy in North America, said it had recalled Aqua Dots from Canadian retail stores as well.
And in Hong Kong, toy sets were seized and tested on Thursday, a customs official said on condition of anonymity.