- Feb 23, 2005
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This is absoluty frightning IMHO. Yeah, our government is over reaching, but I sincerely appreciate the strict standards we have for food, toys, etc. More bad news for imported Chinese products. It's amazing it's all coming tumbling down.
I realize the percentage of tainted ANYTHING is low, but, as a proponent of outsourcing to a point, I clearly admit the weakness-lack of quality control. Let me tell you a little insight why I have this opinion. I'm a aquarium enthusiast. Some of my tanks I feed bloodworms. The problem with bloodworms is they are VERY messy. I have made a simple feeder that controls the bloodworms and keeps them in a nice tidy plastic basket until ready to be eaten. It costs me about 25 cents to make. I have even made a few for friends. I looked into marketing them, as there are so few solutions for this, and bloodworms are VERY common in the community. I found a company, yes in China, who will take my design, make my product, and ship them to me for $100 for 1500 units. Now, I looked around the US for a similar solution, and the best I could find was a total $500 setup, then $2.25/each. As someone who could probably make decent money on my product, the answer is obvious. I havent done it yet, as right now I dont have the time to market. But, you get the idea.
Now, back to the OP.
Australia's Chinese-made Toy of the Year contains 'date rape' drug
Australian officials ordered a popular Chinese-made children's toy pulled from the shelves after scientists found it contained a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape'' drug when ingested.
Last update: November 07, 2007 ? 6:37 AM
SYDNEY, Australia - Australian officials ordered a popular Chinese-made children's toy pulled from the shelves after scientists found it contained a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape'' drug when ingested.
Three children have been hospitalized over the past 10 days after swallowing beads from Bindeez, named Australia's toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.
The beads in the toy, sold by Australia-based Moose Enterprises, are arranged into designs and fuse together when sprayed with water.
Scientists say the beads contain a chemical that the human body 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.
The New South Wales state minister for fair trading, Linda Burney, ordered the toys pulled from store shelves Tuesday when it was learned a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were admitted to a Sydney hospital after swallowing large quantities of the beads.
A 19-month-old toddler from Queensland also was receiving medical help after eating the beads, the state's chief health officer, Jeannette Young, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
"The number of product recalls of well-known toys is highly disturbing to me,'' Burney said. "In the meantime, I would urge parents to immediately remove any Bindeez products from their children.''
Naren Gunja from Australia's Poisons Information Center said the drug's effect on children was "quite serious ... and potentially life-threatening.''
A statement from the New South Wales Fair Trading Department said the product was supposed to used a nontoxic compound used in glue, but contained the harmful chemical instead.
Moose Enterprises could not immediately be reached for comment.
Here's another article.
HONG KONG: Poisonous toy beads from China were not under suspicion when an Australian biochemist began trying last month to figure out why a 2-year-old boy had fallen into a shallow coma with seizure-like movements and been rushed to hospital.
Clinicians treating the boy suspected an inherited metabolic disorder. So Dr. Kevin Carpenter, a biochemical geneticist at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, in a suburb of Sydney, began checking urine samples for certain chemicals. What he found instead was gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, a banned "date rape" drug that can be life threatening.
Four weeks of medical sleuthing led Carpenter to the conclusion that the boy had eaten Bindeez toy beads coated with a glue compound that the boy's digestive system had converted into GHB. At least four other children have been temporarily hospitalized in Australia and New Zealand in the past three weeks after eating the beads.
I realize the percentage of tainted ANYTHING is low, but, as a proponent of outsourcing to a point, I clearly admit the weakness-lack of quality control. Let me tell you a little insight why I have this opinion. I'm a aquarium enthusiast. Some of my tanks I feed bloodworms. The problem with bloodworms is they are VERY messy. I have made a simple feeder that controls the bloodworms and keeps them in a nice tidy plastic basket until ready to be eaten. It costs me about 25 cents to make. I have even made a few for friends. I looked into marketing them, as there are so few solutions for this, and bloodworms are VERY common in the community. I found a company, yes in China, who will take my design, make my product, and ship them to me for $100 for 1500 units. Now, I looked around the US for a similar solution, and the best I could find was a total $500 setup, then $2.25/each. As someone who could probably make decent money on my product, the answer is obvious. I havent done it yet, as right now I dont have the time to market. But, you get the idea.
Now, back to the OP.
Australia's Chinese-made Toy of the Year contains 'date rape' drug
Australian officials ordered a popular Chinese-made children's toy pulled from the shelves after scientists found it contained a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape'' drug when ingested.
Last update: November 07, 2007 ? 6:37 AM
SYDNEY, Australia - Australian officials ordered a popular Chinese-made children's toy pulled from the shelves after scientists found it contained a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape'' drug when ingested.
Three children have been hospitalized over the past 10 days after swallowing beads from Bindeez, named Australia's toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.
The beads in the toy, sold by Australia-based Moose Enterprises, are arranged into designs and fuse together when sprayed with water.
Scientists say the beads contain a chemical that the human body 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.
The New South Wales state minister for fair trading, Linda Burney, ordered the toys pulled from store shelves Tuesday when it was learned a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were admitted to a Sydney hospital after swallowing large quantities of the beads.
A 19-month-old toddler from Queensland also was receiving medical help after eating the beads, the state's chief health officer, Jeannette Young, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
"The number of product recalls of well-known toys is highly disturbing to me,'' Burney said. "In the meantime, I would urge parents to immediately remove any Bindeez products from their children.''
Naren Gunja from Australia's Poisons Information Center said the drug's effect on children was "quite serious ... and potentially life-threatening.''
A statement from the New South Wales Fair Trading Department said the product was supposed to used a nontoxic compound used in glue, but contained the harmful chemical instead.
Moose Enterprises could not immediately be reached for comment.
Here's another article.
HONG KONG: Poisonous toy beads from China were not under suspicion when an Australian biochemist began trying last month to figure out why a 2-year-old boy had fallen into a shallow coma with seizure-like movements and been rushed to hospital.
Clinicians treating the boy suspected an inherited metabolic disorder. So Dr. Kevin Carpenter, a biochemical geneticist at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, in a suburb of Sydney, began checking urine samples for certain chemicals. What he found instead was gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, a banned "date rape" drug that can be life threatening.
Four weeks of medical sleuthing led Carpenter to the conclusion that the boy had eaten Bindeez toy beads coated with a glue compound that the boy's digestive system had converted into GHB. At least four other children have been temporarily hospitalized in Australia and New Zealand in the past three weeks after eating the beads.
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