DENVER (KDVR) — U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen and two different lawmakers are introducing a invoice that might ban the sale of water beads marketed to youngsters, citing the toy’s hazard.
These toys are colourful, water-absorbing balls manufactured from super-absorbent polymer, designed to develop in measurement when launched to liquid. They will typically seem like sweet and can be lethal if swallowed.
Additionally they go beneath many names. Gel beads, Orbeez, polymer beads, water orbs, jelly beads and different titles are all related to the identical sort of toy.
In keeping with the U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee, the beads are a hazard to younger kids.
Pettersen and the opposite sponsors — Frank Pallone, Jr., D-New Jersey, and Robin Kelly, D-Illinois — are searching for to make use of the laws to compel the Shopper Product Security Fee to implement a ban on all water beads marketed for kids’s use.
Water beads result in 7,800 ER visits
In keeping with the fee, when swallowed by kids, water beads can shortly soak up bodily fluids and swell to dam intestines or trigger different accidents. In keeping with the fee’s estimates, kids consuming water beads resulted in 7,800 emergency room visits between 2016-22. The beads may trigger harm when inserted into the kid’s physique, such because the ear canal.
Indicators of a kid ingesting a water bead embody refusing to eat, drooling, wheezing, vomiting, constipation, complaints of one thing caught in an airway and belly swelling and soreness.
“Because the mother of a toddler, I do know harmful toys that look enjoyable however even have dangerous — and even lethal — penalties are each dad or mum’s nightmare,” Pettersen mentioned in an announcement for the invoice. “I can’t think about what the dad and mom of children who ingested these water beads are going via, and we can not permit this product to proceed harming kids in Colorado or anyplace in our nation.
“Particularly as dad and mom start purchasing for the vacations, I’m proud to affix Representatives Pallone and Kelly on this invoice to ban water beads and maintain youngsters secure,” Pettersen added.
Plenty of folks added their testimony of the toys’ hazard to the representatives’ announcement.
“Our candy Esther Jo is gone all due to a toy; a toy she was by no means allowed to play with,” mentioned Taylor Bethard, whose daughter died after ingesting a water bead from a kids’s toy package. “Water beads should not well worth the threat. If you’re a dad or mum, caregiver, instructor or therapist, I urge you to take away these out of your areas instantly. Our household is grateful that the Ban Water Beads Act will assist be certain that no different household endures the identical tragedy we have now.”
Alex Hoehn-Saric, chair of the Shopper Product Security Fee, mentioned that each one babies who’ve entry to water beads are susceptible to harm or loss of life.
“I’ve heard heartbreaking tales from dad and mom whose kids ingested water beads and suffered horrendous penalties, together with grave inner accidents, lifelong well being impacts and even loss of life,” Hoehn-Saric mentioned within the launch. “I thank the Representatives for his or her management on this difficulty and stay up for working with him and with dad or mum advocates to guard kids.”
Ashley Haugen is the founder and president of That Water Bead Girl, a nonprofit devoted to sharing the risks of water beads.
“A toy is supposed to convey pleasure, not tragedy,” Haugen mentioned within the invoice announcement. “But, in 2017, my household’s life was turned the other way up when water beads, bought for my oldest daughter, poisoned, and critically injured my youngest daughter, Kipley.
“The identical water beads that devastated my household stay on the market, a silent menace in any residence,” Haugen continued. “We help the Ban Water Beads Act and urge retailers to proactively take away these beads from their on-line platforms and cabinets.”
