This is getting ridiculous…….but hey, maybe when the kids get loaded on the GHB they’ll be even more creative!

Just in Time for Christmas

Target, Toys R Us, Amazon and Wal-Mart, among other retailers are all scrambling to pull the latest hot toy off store shelves. Not because it’s almost Christmas and it’s considered a top Wal-Mart toy for 2007.

“Aqua Dots Super Studio” was being heavily promoted this season as a fun arts-and-crafts project that combines, “creativity and crafting to create multiple designs - just add water!”

Adding water or saliva is the problem.

In an unusually strong warning, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says that a solvent used to manufacture the toy’s beads at a Chinese plant can, when ingested, convert into a chemical that’s found in the date rape drug known as GHB.

More than four million of the toys, distributed by the Canadian company, Spin Master are being recalled. They-ve been on store shelves since April and may be in a closet waiting to be wrapped.

And if that’s not enough, you have to worry about the toys you give your animals, too.

By NICHOLAS CASEY and NICHOLAS ZAMISKA
from The Wall Street Journal

Latest Incident From China Involves Cars, Magnet Toys; More Pressure on Factories

Mattel Inc. is close to announcing its second big recall of Chinese-made toys in as many weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, expanding a mounting crisis for the toy maker that could grow even more problematic as the holiday shopping season approaches.

Mattel earlier recalled more than a million toys — including ones based on characters from Sesame Street and Nickelodeon — that may have been tainted with lead paint. Now, people briefed on the matter say, it will recall possibly hundreds of thousands of more items. One of the recalled items is a die-cast car that may contain lead paint. Other items involve toys with magnets that can be harmful to children if swallowed. The items involved in the new recall may come from different factories than the plant that made toys involved in the first recall, according to these people. The magnet-related recall is expected to involve several years worth of the affected toy, a person familiar with the matter said.

Mattel didn’t return calls seeking comment. The Consumer Product Safety Commission had no comment.

Magnet issues surfaced recently in another toy recall. In 2006, the CPSC issued a similar recall for 3.8 million “Magnetix” sets, a toy produced by Rose Art Industries Inc. of Livingston, N.J. The sets consisted of tiny magnets that, if swallowed by an infant, bonded together in the stomach and caused fatal intestinal perforation in at least one instance. The CPSC documented 34 incidents involving the magnets, including one death and four serious injuries. A 20-month-old boy died after he swallowed pieces that twisted his small intestine and created a blockage.

read more HERE

By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mattel Inc.’s (MAT.N) Fisher-Price unit is recalling about 1.5 million Chinese-made toys around the world, nearly a million of them in the United States, because their paint may contain too much lead.

The recall is the latest in a string of incidents that have fueled U.S.-China tensions over the safety of Chinese products.

The recalled toys, which include popular preschool characters like Elmo, Big Bird, and Dora, were made by a contract manufacturer in China using a non-approved paint pigment containing lead, Mattel said on Wednesday.

The company said it is recalling roughly 967,000 plastic toys from the U.S. market and about 533,000 from international markets, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico.

“We operate on a global basis,” said Jim Walter, senior vice president of worldwide quality assurance at Mattel, adding that the recall could affect all its markets around the world.

In the United States, the products were sold nationwide at retail stores between May and August, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. They sold for $5 to $40.

Mattel said U.S. consumers should contact Fisher-Price to arrange a product return and to receive a voucher for a replacement toy.

read more HERE

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sara Lee Corp is recalling bread sold under EarthGrains, Sara Lee Delightful Wheat and several other brands because the loaves may contain small pieces of metal, the company said on Friday.

The company recalled the bread after it discovered damage to a whole-wheat flour sifter during a routine inspection that indicated some metal might have made its way into the bread, Sara Lee spokesman Mark Goldman said.

The bakery is still operating using bagged whole-wheat flour that does not require sifting, Goldman said,

The bread being recalled is sold in Mississippi and Alabama, most of Arkansas, far southeastern Missouri, western Georgia, southwestern Tennessee, southeastern Louisiana and the panhandle of Florida, Sara Lee said.

The packages are stamped with “best if purchased by” dates of July 25, 2007 through August 7, 2007 and include the code “222.” The bread was produced at the company’s Meridian, Mississippi, bakery.

The bread should not be consumed and should be returned to the store where it was purchased for a full refund, Sara Lee said.