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China on Saturday froze exports of the popular bead toys as millions of them were pulled off the shelves in the US and Australia after many children fell sick on ingesting the beads containing a toxic chemical.
Ordering suspension of exports, China's quality control watchdog said it has sealed the bead toys, highly rated for its popularity with kids, at the level of the producer, whom it did not name and asked the quality control agencies to launch inspections.
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine would release investigation results, the official Xinhua news agency said, as its action came in response to recall of 4.2 million "Acqua Dots" in the US and in Australia where the arts and crafts toy is sold under the brand name "Bindeez".
Spain has also ordered the toys to be withdrawn from the market in the latest series of recalls that has dealt another blow to the image of China's toy industry which produces 60 per cent of the global volume and four in every five toys sold in the US.
Nine children reportedly fell ill so far in the US and three in Australia after swallowing the beads, with most of them hospitalised. The US Consumer and Product Safety Commission said the beads that make up the toy contain an adhesive solvent that can turn toxic and cause unconsciousness, if swallowed.
"Children who swallow the beads can become comatose, develop respiratory depression or have seizures," a CPSC statement in the US warned.
"The Acqua Dots recall is one of the most serious announced by CPSC in recent years," Scott Wolfson, Deputy Director, CPSC, said in a comment under "urgent health and safety alert" posted on their website.
The art and craft beads toys had become a big hit and was named the "Toy of the Year" in Australia and was on the list of top 12 Christmas toys in the US.
Since August this year, 26 million made-in-China toys and other products have been recalled in the US.
Meanwhile, Xinhua quoted a Canadian study to say that China-made toys, posed no more risk than toys made elsewhere and may even be safer.
The recalls of Chinese-made toys are no more frequent than of toys made elsewhere, it quoted the study published by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada as saying.
The study on toy recalls said the recall of Chinese toys only seem more common because China produces by far the most toys.
Toy imports from other countries are proportionately recalled as often as or more often than their Chinese counterparts, and, unlike China, manufacturing problems are more likely to be the cause of these recalls, the study said.
In 2004, four firms recalled 150 million pieces of toy jewelry made in India because they contained excessive amounts of lead. In 2002, approximately 75,000 South Korean-made pedal-cars, retailing at between $100 to 300, were recalled because of their high lead content, said the study.
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