Yet more bad news from China

[ellid]

A popular toy designed to be used with water is coated with substances that can metabolize into a date rape drug.

Dear sweet Jesus on toast. If I had kids, I'd buy them pipecleaners and have them make their own toys....

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I am not a good person at all. My immediate response was to snarl "That'll teach 'em to go putting things in their mouths!"

It seems to me that this is not a toy that toddlers should be playing with in the first place, and older kids should know better than to put small objects in their mouths (not that that will stop them). Still, this is appalling. It is also not a coincidence that our alarming rise in child and consumer safety hazards has occurred during this administration.

This is so profoundly disturbing on so many levels.

[stasia]

Heh. Well, I'm a fan of the old style toy. Wooden spoons and metal pots and pans were good enough for me...

I'm so glad my daughter's now old enough to not be in danger when this kind of toy recall happens. Now all I need to worry about is actual date rape, bad boyfriends, online solicitation and, well, grades.

*head desk*

Stasia

[busaikko]

Huh--so was the date rape drug thing an accident, or was the component necessary to the chemistry of the toy? *is confused*

Personally... as someone who a) is more-or-less enviromentally conscious, b) subjected to polluted dust clouds from China's Gobi Desert every spring, and c) violently allergic to holiday decorations set up more than 2 weeks before said holiday... I've always advocated 'Christmas Not Made in China'. That China is sacrificing the environmental future of its country to make plastic ticky-tack for American holidays (and incidentally selling tons of the stuff here in Japan) is not something I care to support.

It is a scary, scary thing to be a parent these days. Some days it really is like running to stand still. I think of the poor parents, because it's one of the classics, the trying to do a good thing and having it all go bad....

((and also? I'm picturing all the potential date rapists, going out and buying up all these toys that they can....))

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

Jesus jumping frog! My daughter was just asking for some of those!

[prince-hring.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember pipe cleaners.

I once heard of a kid who put his eye out with one of those...

---

There are no "safe" toys. If parents want their kids to be safe, they need to supervise. The more the supervision, the more the safety. Mind you, the more the supervision, the less opportunity to learn from mistakes.

Perhaps it's time for us to recalibrate this obsession we have with safety.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

This is frightening but not surprising. Corporate greed sucks.

As for safety obsession, I agree with one of the other posters to a certain extent. It's why I ignore Pennsic rules and let my 8 year old walk to the loo by herself and when she's home I let her walk to the playgrounds near by as well.

Kids do need to learn how to be independent. The only way to learn that is to get some independence.

The problem with the recalls from Chinese made products is that we expect the toys we give our kids to not contain hazardous materials. Why is anyone, anywhere still using lead-based paint? Why didn't anyone catch that the formula for "Aquadots" created a date-rape drug? What were they thinking? (My guess is that they weren't.)

[kaiz.livejournal.com]

D'oh!

This is what comes of going with the lowest bidder. Capitalism Greed and corruption at its finest.

The execs who okay'd this deal as well as the brainiacs who designed the toys should be forced to walk around town wearing placards that read: "I don't care if kids die, at least my quarterly financials look good!" and then locked in stocks in the public square while parents throw rotten produce at them.