OK, this whole "tainted Chinese toys" thing has become self-parody.

[Ogre]

Report: China halts export of bead toys tainted with toxic drug - CNN.com

China has suspended exports of the Aqua Dots toys contaminated with a chemical that can convert to a powerful “date rape” drug, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Saturday. The toys have caused some children who swallowed the craft toys to vomit and lose consciousness.

Christ. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

A chemical that can be converted to a date rape drug?! Are you shitting me? SNL is behind this, somehow, aren’t they? Or maybe the Onion. It’s just so insanely ludicrous.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Well, it’s not like they did it on purpose. From this article earlier today:

A company spokeswoman for Moose Enterprises’ Hong Kong office said Aqua Dots production was outsourced to a mainland Chinese factory. She refused to elaborate and referred all further requests for comment to the company’s head office in Australia.

The toys were supposed to be made using 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.

The Food and Drug Administration in 1999 declared the chemical a Class I Health Hazard, meaning it can cause life-threatening harm.

Both chemicals are manufactured in China and elsewhere, including by major multinational companies, and are also marketed over the Internet.
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It’s not clear why 1,4-butanediol was substituted, though there is a significant price difference.

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.

So some middle management grunt at the factory in China made the decision to go with the cheaper chemical; result–sick toddlers.

[GuanoLad]

It’s a big deal here in Australia. Several kids here who swallowed the little pieces of plastic have gotten extremely dangerously unwell.

[Freudian_Slit]

Is it ever the case that the cheaper chemical is the safer one? That would be ironic–a company goes out of their way to do the “right thing” by spending lots of money and then gets screwed over.

[MrDibble]

Why is my mind’s eye seeing queues of frat boys in Toys 'R Us trying to buy these toys before they go off the shelves?

[GuanoLad]

@MrDibble

Why is my mind’s eye seeing queues of frat boys in Toys 'R Us trying to buy these toys before they go off the shelves?

Because they appear to be doing just that.

[tonedef]

@Duck Duck Goose

Well, it’s not like they did it on purpose. From this article earlier today:

So some middle management grunt at the factory in China made the decision to go with the cheaper chemical; result–sick toddlers.

Not just toddlers there was a few kids around the age of 10ish that ended up in hospitable aswell.

[MrDibble]

@GuanoLad

Because they appear to be doing just that.

I was more thinking of the “date rape” uses rather than getting high, but damn! That is messed up.

[VinylTurnip]

This story is a media wet dream—it manages to score multiple fear points:

[ul]
[li]Xenophobia (exacerbated by the specter of Chinese market domination)[/li][li]Drug hysteria (the “date rape” kind, no less—a media favorite!)[/li][li]Shadowy, amoral capitalists conspiring to make a buck by harming consumers[/li][li]What about the children???!![/li][/ul]

[saoirse]

@Vinyl Turnip

This story is a media wet dream—it manages to score multiple fear points:

[ul]
[li]Xenophobia (exacerbated by the specter of Chinese market domination)[/li][li]Drug hysteria (the “date rape” kind, no less—a media favorite!)[/li][li]Shadowy, amoral capitalists conspiring to make a buck by harming consumers[/li][li]What about the children???!![/li][/ul]

This is what I’m wondering. How did they identify this as a “date rape” drug? Has it been used for that before? Is it like rohypnol? Or is it like GHB, the other date rape drug, which from my understanding is kind of like esctasy?

Also, in terms of conspiracies, I suspect the producers of shows like SNL and The Daily Show, punishing their writers for going on strike.

[WhyNot]

@saoirse

This is what I’m wondering. How did they identify this as a “date rape” drug? Has it been used for that before? Is it like rohypnol? Or is it like GHB, the other date rape drug, which from my understanding is kind of like esctasy?

Also, in terms of conspiracies, I suspect the producers of shows like SNL and The Daily Show, punishing their writers for going on strike.

GHB. That is, it metabolizes to GHB in the body, it’s not GHB on the beads.

[twickster]

@Vinyl Turnip

This story is a media wet dream—it manages to score multiple fear points:

[ul]
[li]Xenophobia (exacerbated by the specter of Chinese market domination)[/li][li]Drug hysteria (the “date rape” kind, no less—a media favorite!)[/li][li]Shadowy, amoral capitalists conspiring to make a buck by harming consumers[/li][li]What about the children???!![/li][/ul]

You forgot

…

profit!

[Ignatz]

So are the frat boys going to say to the chicks in the bar, “Here, eat these toys!”? “Lick this”?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Hmmm…would re-selling Aquadots constitute drug pushing?

[Ike_Witt]

Why the hell are parents letting young kids have a toy with easy to swallow pieces to begin with?

[C3]

@adam yax

Why the hell are parents letting young kids have a toy with easy to swallow pieces to begin with?

The risk is for chokable pieces, not necessarily easily-swallowed pieces. I’ve never seen Aquadots in person, but they look like something that could be swallowed without risk if they were non-toxic. I mean, parents let their kids play with Play-Do, which is regularly eaten, but it’s non-toxic (at least the package says it is).

[bouv]

Honestly, there really isn’t any risk of these being used as an actual date rape aid. I mean, what woman (most likely woman) is going to eat some small plastic beads, unless they knew what was going to happen? (ie, ravers and the like.)

[MrDibble]

I was joking about the frat boys, people - the joke is that frat boys would be stupid enough to think it might work.

[askeptic]

@Vinyl Turnip

This story is a media wet dream—it manages to score multiple fear points:

[ul]
[li]Xenophobia (exacerbated by the specter of Chinese market domination)[/li][li]Drug hysteria (the “date rape” kind, no less—a media favorite!)[/li][li]Shadowy, amoral capitalists conspiring to make a buck by harming consumers[/li][li]What about the children???!![/li][/ul]

Are you suggesting that China is not inundating the world markets with unsafe products? This is all manufactured fear mongering?

[RTFirefly]

@Duck Duck Goose

Well, it’s not like they did it on purpose. From this article earlier today:

So some middle management grunt at the factory in China made the decision to go with the cheaper chemical; result–sick toddlers.

Given the fact that some of the other problems with health risks from Chinese imports also had to do with substitutions to save on costs, I think this is starting to sound like a systemic problem rather than a bad apple or two.