Keep Your Children Away From The 'Date Rape Drug for Kids'

aegap

Silver
Mar 19, 2005
2,505
10
0
Toy Is Pulled Amid Fears
Of Contaminated Beads


[FONT=times new roman,times,serif][FONT=times new roman,times,serif]By JANE SPENCER
November 7, 2007 4:34 p.m.
[/FONT]
[/FONT]
HONG KONG?Retailers around the world scrambled to pull a popular toy called Bindeez off the shelves Wednesday after a chemical in some shipments of the Chinese-made product was found to mimic the effects of the so-called date rape drug.
At least three children have been hospitalized in Australia in recent weeks after swallowing beads from the toy
...
Bindeez, which was expected to be a hot seller this holiday season, is an arts-and-crafts toy that features small beads that stick together when they get wet. Parents have been buzzing about them on online discussion forums on eBay and Amazon.com...
...
toy factory owner in the city of Foshan in China's Guangdong province said Wednesday that it is not uncommon for toy companies to use toxic glues in place of safer alternatives because they dry more quickly. "It's always used in undetectable parts on a toy to avoid inspection," said the factory owner, who requested anonymity. "Plus, after painting, it's even harder to discover the problem."
 

Chris

Gold
Oct 21, 2002
7,951
28
0
www.caribbetech.com
I'm so glad someone else is noticing it. In case the rest of the middle-east does not turn out to be enough of an enemy/target, the 'Western World' is already setting up to choose China as the next one. The press has been unbelievable ... Series running in reasonably trusted papers of how 'bad' the 'paper tiger' really is.

An no-one sees the apology from Mattel that the standards that slipped was as a result of their own policies and requirements and negligence. That piece is buried almost right inside the 6 pages of classifieds.

Anyway, don't buy those toys. Don't forget, they're liable to be dumped somewhere in the 3rd world (developing states!) and the DR is part of that world.
 

CFA123

Silver
May 29, 2004
3,512
413
83
If anyone wants to test , I actually have them here in Cabarete. ;)

Brought back "Aquadots" (U.S. name of toy http://www.aquadots.tv) with me for a friend's kid who was going crazy to have them. I've got a cute little penguin that she made for me as a thank you in the kitchen.
 

aegap

Silver
Mar 19, 2005
2,505
10
0
Those mean Australian, hospitalizing kids and blaming it on China just so they can please the United States.

Mean Chinese factory owner, going along with the bad mean journalist instead of telling the truth.
 
Last edited:

Chris

Gold
Oct 21, 2002
7,951
28
0
www.caribbetech.com
... a 20-month-old child swallowed several dozen beads
... a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were admitted to a Sydney hospital after swallowing large quantities of the beads.
... 19-month-old from Queensland also was receiving medical attention after eating the beads.

Let me ask aegap ...
Do you let your toddler play with beads unsupervised? It is not common knowledge that everything goes into the mouth at that stage in life? Where are the parents when the toddlers eat 'large quantities' of a toy? (Makes me think of a blog from Chiri - no, we don't let our children eat toys)
Where is the quality control of the company that specified the toy for manufacturing?
Was the glue specified?
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
Don't they put Notices on these toys that say: Swallowing Hazard! Small parts can be swallowed by children...!! Or words to that effect?

HB
 

Chip

Platinum
Jul 25, 2007
16,772
429
0
Santiago
Mattel, as most toy manufacturer's certainly did not specify the paint that was used - the article clearly states that some enterprising dope in China decided to use a substitute, for you guessed it, to save himself more money at the expense of dangering little kids.
 

aegap

Silver
Mar 19, 2005
2,505
10
0
Mattel, as most toy manufacturer's certainly did not specify the paint that was used - the article clearly states that some enterprising dope in China decided to use a substitute, for you guessed it, to save himself more money at the expense of dangering little kids.

Moose Enterprises said Bindeez and Aqua Dots are made at the same factory, which is in Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province. Last week, the government announced an export ban on more than 700 toy factories in the region because of shoddy products.


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....


It's not clear why 1,4-butanediol was substituted. However, there is a significant difference in price between the two chemicals. The Chinese online trading platform ChemNet China lists the price of 1,4 butanediol at between about $1,350-$2,800 per metric ton, while the price for 1,5-pentanediol is about $9,700 per metric ton.
 

Chip

Platinum
Jul 25, 2007
16,772
429
0
Santiago
It's not clear why 1,4-butanediol was substituted. However, there is a significant difference in price between the two chemicals. The Chinese online trading platform ChemNet China lists the price of 1,4 butanediol at between about $1,350-$2,800 per metric ton, while the price for 1,5-pentanediol is about $9,700 per metric ton.

On the contrary, I think it is quite clear. China is a royal mess of a country but to give it credit, it is not easy going from a doomed to failure socialist society to a you guesed it, market driven capitalist society. Therefore it will take times for checks and balances to be put into place to protect the consumer, ie the "client" for market driven societies. If not the "client" goes somewhere else and then they have to figure out where to get income to feed 1.5 billion people. This won't get any easier, what with them basically contaminiating their rivers and soils and air every chance they get - at some point their agricultural system will fail, just like the USSR. And since nobody anymore gets away with mass murder because of satellites, it's not like they could send tens of millions to their deaths like in the good ol' days to have that many less mouths to feed. The Chinese gov't knows this too and therefore don't be surprised to see some public hangings, etc. to deal with these sinister businessmen.
 

Criss Colon

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
21,843
191
0
38
yahoomail.com
"Chip",I Have Moved Your Post To "China 1" Where It Belongs!

:cheeky::cheeky::cheeky::cheeky::cheeky::cheeky::cheeky::cheeky:
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
 

aegap

Silver
Mar 19, 2005
2,505
10
0
... a 20-month-old child swallowed several dozen beads
... a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were admitted to a Sydney hospital after swallowing large quantities of the beads.
... 19-month-old from Queensland also was receiving medical attention after eating the beads.

Let me ask aegap ...
Do you let your toddler play with beads unsupervised? It is not common knowledge that everything goes into the mouth at that stage in life? Where are the parents when the toddlers eat 'large quantities' of a toy? (Makes me think of a blog from Chiri - no, we don't let our children eat toys)
Where is the quality control of the company that specified the toy for manufacturing?
Was the glue specified?

Kids will be kids. As much one supervise them at home or at daycare, it tends to happen that some would still swallow small stuff like this. That is why developed countries tend have laws and regulations that require kids bids jewelry and other small play stuff they could rather easily swallow be made of inert, non-toxic material

When a rape spree overtake a city, the brunt of the blame for it is not on the women that may have made the in hindsight unwise decision of walking the street alone after dusk. The brunt of the blame should be place on those actually doing the rape.

The brunt of the blame rest on the companies from the undeveloped countries for actively trying to violate safety standards. But Western companies and governments also deserve blame for not insuring those standards are adhered to, ..

The chemical suspected in Wednesday's recall of Aqua Dots products -- 1,4-butanediol -- is banned for use in toys in the United States, and independent labs would have to test for it, said Donald L. Mays, senior director for product safety at Consumers Union.
...
A spokesman for Moose Enterprises, an Australian company that sold the beads under the name Bindeez, said company officials think the beads were contaminated after a Chinese subcontractor substituted the 1,4-butanediol for a nontoxic glue. Once ingested, the chemical breaks down into the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), which can render a person senseless and is known as a "date-rape" drug.

Product-safety officials in Australia, the United States, Canada and Britain are still sorting out which batches were contaminated. But because of the severity of the hazard, all Aqua Dots products were recalled, including kits with different accessories such as a drying fan, applicator pen and spray bottle.

...
Consumer advocates said the onus is on manufacturers and retailers to protect consumers from hazards like the one found in Aqua Dots, which, unlike lead, cannot be detected without sophisticated laboratory tests.

Parents and toy-givers certainly couldn't anticipate the apparent inadvertent presence of a date-rape drug in a child's toy," said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. PIRG.
We have a rape spree been done by these Chinese companies, with Western companies as the facilitators and our domestic police forces not doing the job they should have been doing in preventing it in the first instance or trying to bring a stop to it now
 
Last edited:

Chris

Gold
Oct 21, 2002
7,951
28
0
www.caribbetech.com
Thanks aegap, for that balanced view. I don't think we're far away from each other in what we see. If this was a negotiation, I would have strong hope for a successful outcome. :laugh:
 

aegap

Silver
Mar 19, 2005
2,505
10
0
I tried to edit to add the following, but my ten minutes were up, lol, ...

Out of a thousand well generally supervised kids changes are great at least one will manage to put the already made figures (not even the individual beads) in their mouth. ..and once again, that is why developed countries tend have laws and regulations that require kids beads jewelry and other small play stuff they could rather easily swallow or habitually put in their mouth to be made of inert, non-toxic materials.

rg_bindeez_wideweb__470x415,0.jpg


The Age - World News, Finance News & Breaking News - Melbourne, Australia
 
Last edited: