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As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Thursday, November 08, 2007

A Date-Rape Drug In Toys?

What, do they just have factories over in China filled with dangerous crap and somebody puts on a blindfold and picks out the first thing he finds?

U.S. safety officials have voluntarily recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots toys contaminated with a powerful "date rape" drug that has caused some children to vomit and lose consciousness upon ingesting the contents.

Scientists have found the highly popular holiday toy contains a chemical that, once metabolized, converts into the toxic "date rape" drug GHB (gamma-hydroxy butyrate), U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) spokesman Scott Wolfson told CNN.

"Children who swallow the beads can become comatose, develop respiratory depression or have seizures," a CPSC statement warned.

"Anyone with Aqua Dots at home should throw them out," CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said. The toy was named toy of the year in Australia and recently made Wal-Mart Store Inc's list of top 12 Christmas toys.


I could do a really cruel joke about Catholic priests and rosary beads, but... whoops, I think I just did.

Seriously, the product safety situation is almost a parody now. While the heads of the CPSC are off on 12-day safaris, conglomerates are literally letting their Chinese manufacturers get away with murder. A date-rape drug? Seriously? What's next, Malibu Barbie with absinthe?

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