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Australia's 'Toy of the year' recalled
Toy beads found to contain precursor to 'date rape' drug
By Keith Bradsher
Published: November 7, 2007
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.
The toy's distributor, Moose Enterprise of Australia, ordered a recall this week of Bindeez, which has been marketed all over the world by mail order and Internet companies and which just won an award as Australia's toy of the year. Toy stores in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore have begun taking the beads off their shelves.
Peter Mahon, a spokesman for Moose, said that the company had only recalled Bindeez beads in Australia, while ordering tests on the safety of Bindeez beads sold in more than 40 other countries, including the United States. The test results should be back within two days and a decision will be made then whether to broaden the recall, he said.
By Keith Bradsher
Published: November 7, 2007
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.
The toy's distributor, Moose Enterprise of Australia, ordered a recall this week of Bindeez, which has been marketed all over the world by mail order and Internet companies and which just won an award as Australia's toy of the year. Toy stores in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore have begun taking the beads off their shelves.
Peter Mahon, a spokesman for Moose, said that the company had only recalled Bindeez beads in Australia, while ordering tests on the safety of Bindeez beads sold in more than 40 other countries, including the United States. The test results should be back within two days and a decision will be made then whether to broaden the recall, he said.
Thanks for pointing it out, brother.
who is ministering to the fallen in Arizona: 
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