US, Aussie Officials Yank GHB-Producing Toys 343
theodp writes "Questioned about concerns over China-made toys, Toys 'R' Us CEO Jerry Storch predicted 'this will be the safest holiday season ever.' Oops. On the same day Storch's interview ran in Fortune, Toys 'R' Us joined other North American and Australian retailers to pull millions of Chinese-made toy bead sets from shelves after scientists found they contain a chemical that when ingested metabolizes into GHB, the date-rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. Two children in the US and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads."
Chemical Replacement (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wait: swallowing the beads???!! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:the emphasis (Score:2, Informative)
Re:the emphasis (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Chemical Replacement (Score:3, Informative)
Date Rape Drug? Sure - But So Is Alcohol! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:the emphasis (Score:3, Informative)
I'll give you two guesses.
They were supposed to use 1,5 pentanediol which is a common ingredient used to keep glues from getting sticky before they get wet. Instead they cut costs and used 1,4 butanediol (gamma-butyrolactone) which is a prodrug enzymatically metabolized into GHB.
Date Rape Drug? (Score:5, Informative)
I heard this on the news last night and thought "Oh, they're tainted with rohypnol". When I read this article this morning, I saw that it was GHB.
Again, the media demonizing and misclassifying drugs. I'm not saying that GHB is good. Don't get me wrong at all. But the whole misclassification of things confuses parents, makes kids crave the stuff more, and generally, in it's lowest form, is misinformation.
And we know how slashdot folks hate sensationalized misinformation, right?
Toddlers eat things (Score:5, Informative)
Responsible parenting is one thing, but kids will stick anything in their mouth, and nose.
A childerens enviroment should therefore not contain things that A are small enough to swallow or B are harmfull if done so. Toys therefore have to be made in such a way that even with rough handling parts do not come off and are non-toxic. Thats the law. It really ain't even that hard. The original toy in this case WAS non-toxic. The chinese replaced the original glue with another, why? The chinese for some reason seem unable to follow specifications. All the recalls I seen from China are because they changed a part of the design for no good reason.
I am all for responsible parenting, but when a company creates a safe product and a chinese company replaces a harmless glue with a KNOWN dangerous one, what is a parent to do. The product HAD been tested before. Should you put everything through your own lab before giving it to your child?
Frankly it is about time the chinese start to act upon this. Launch a police investigation and find out why this glue was replaced.
But yes parents should also inspect the toys themselves, before you give a toddler a teddybear, try and see if you can pull it apart. but parents can't be expected to do chemical tests.
Frankly I think we need to thighten the rules, NO product is released without it first passing rigid and mandatory safety checks that test EVERYTHING. Release a product that proves harmfull and you are charged with attempted manslaughter. Why did this company not TEST their products one they arrived from china?
Re:So... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Chemical Replacement (Score:4, Informative)
In contrast, 1,5-pentanediol is significantly more difficult to make and doesn't have anywhere nearly the demand or volume production, hence its higher expense and the temptation to substitute the cheaper, more readily available material that's almost just the same (except for the metabolites.)
This is also why I don't trust herbal remedies that come out of China. That one carbon makes only a little difference in this case, but there are others where it'd be the difference between as effective as herbal remedies ever are and *dead*, and who are your surviving relatives going to pursue when it's a Chinese company that made the stuff?
Chinese manufacturing and Product specifications (Score:4, Informative)
I gave up having anything made in China years ago. The quality control alone ended up costing more than any savings I got from Chinese labor. In some products, we had as high as a 20% defect rate, and 5% was normal. Now I use automated machines to make my goods, and I hire local employees to do the design and operations work. You know what? now I have a better product AND a better price than I used to get from China!
http://www.rlt.com/ [rlt.com]
Mass Hysteria (Score:3, Informative)
Read that again. "Large amounts." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/06/2082480.htm [abc.net.au]
This is a case of mass hysteria. More children probably get hurt from falling off a bicycle or choking on their Fruit Loops.
Please shut the fuck up (Score:2, Informative)
That's completely wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyltryptamine [wikipedia.org]
"There are no drug tests that would show DMT usage. None of the basic NIDA 5 drug tests or any extended drug test will show a result for DMT."
"This stuff makes LSD look like a placebo in comparison."
That's wrong too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD [wikipedia.org]
"Dosages of LSD are measured in micrograms (g), or millionths of a gram. By comparison, dosages of almost all other drugs, both recreational and medicinal, are measured in milligrams (mg), or thousandths of a gram. Hofmann determined that an active dose of mescaline, roughly 0.2 to 0.5g, has effects comparable to 100g or less of LSD; put another way, LSD is between five to ten thousand times more active than mescaline."
I hate people like you so much, you sit around your fucking dorm room with your other loser friends and mentally masturbate about the drugs you take, repeating the same ridiculous misinformation, and propagating it to other losers like you in order to impress them with your "drug knowledge".
I think that would work a lot better if you actually bothered to know what the fuck you were talking about.
But, since it's clear you don't, all you've done is make yourself sound like another burnout spouting crap about things beyond the comprehension of his screwed up little brain.
Re:So... (Score:3, Informative)
Oh here we go - blatantly stolen from AP.
Both chemicals are manufactured in China and elsewhere, including by major multinational companies, and are also marketed over the Internet.
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.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071108/D8SPHKFO4.html [excite.com]
Re:So... (Score:3, Informative)
GHB can actually be quite safe. For one it is a naturally occuring chemical that exists in every cell of your body RIGHT NOW. It can be used as an intoxicant but the words "date rape drug" are not fair. There are so many potential date rape drugs out there, alcohol being #1.
GHB is used as a sleep aid and to treat alcoholism. Also when small amounts of GHB are taken it increases growth hormones and has been used by bodybuilders. Of course it can be dangerous but calling it simply a "date rape drug" and nothing else is unfair.
MOD PARENT DOWN: I was totally wrong (Score:4, Informative)
*sigh*
To do: get more sleep, read before hitting 'submit'