Dangerous children's toys still on sale

• Source: Global Times
• [13:40 May 31 2010]
• Comments

Ocean Babies on sale in stores at Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai Sunday. Photo: Shen Weihuang

By Shen Weihuang

Despite a warning from the China Consumer's Association that they pose a health risk, plastic novelty items that have become popular with children are still on sale in Shanghai.

Ocean Baby novelties are small plastic balls 1 or 2 mm wide, that can swell to 100 times their original size when left in water for six hours.

These balls are usually used as "clean soil" for house plants. But now many more are sold to children as toys.

On May 28, the China Consumer's Association announced that the toys were contaminated with heavy metals. Sunday, China's largest online retailer Taobao.com has banned the sale of the balls under the category of toys, according to Qianjiang Evening News in Hangzhou, where Taobao is based.

However, these plastic balls are still available on Taobao. com as "flower soil," a form of potting mix, the Global Times found last night.

The Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce did not issue any notices about Ocean Baby over the weekend.

"Any toys for children under 14 years old in China should pass a 3C (China Compulsory Certification) test, which involves physical, chemical and flammability tests. Apparently, Ocean Baby hasn't undergone these tests," Xu Quanning, secretary-general of the Shanghai Toy Trade Association, told the Global Times Sunday.

Xu added that the balls contain magnesium, zinc, manganese and barium, all of which can be harmful to children if swallowed. If a child swallows an Ocean Baby, the ball could swell and cause internal damage.

To date, there have been no reports of injuries or harm caused by an Ocean Baby.

Despite the dangers and the publicity, the Ocean Baby was readily available in Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden Sunday. One vendor there told the Global Times that he had not been told by the authorities to stop selling Ocean Baby.

The vendor said that he was selling packs with more than 400 of the small plastic balls in a pack for 2 yuan (3 cents), and that he could sell a dozen such packs a day, mostly to parents with children or to elderly people.

"These plastic toys are mostly from other provinces like Zhejiang and Guangdong, Shanghai is mainly producing inflatable and fluffy toys at the moment," a local toy factory employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Global Times Sunday.