Top retailers like Amazon and Walmart have stopped selling children’s toy in Canada following reports of life-threatening injuries.
Water beads have been sold as a fun children’s toy that children can watch and touch as they expand in water. The water-absorbing gel beads can grow up to 1,500 times their size when placed in water.
Recall that Health Canada issued a warning about giving the product to children when serious complications were reported when the beads were swallowed or put in the kid’s ears or nose.
Health Canada warned: “If ingested, water beads can continue to grow inside the body leading to potentially life-threatening injuries, such as intestinal or bowel obstruction.”
When the beads are dry, they are very small and harmless but Health Canada said it is aware of many international incidents where children had ingested water beads sustained life-threatening injuries that needed major surgery.
According to Health Canada, the beads come in many forms like “jelly beads, hydro orbs, crystal soil, sensory beads or orb beads.”
Though Health Canada issued the warning risk in May, stores were slow to remove the products marketed as toys.
On December 12, Amazon implemented a new policy which bans sellers from marketing water beads as toys for children. The policy applies to both the United States and Canada.
Reports have it that Walmart has also stopped selling water beads as toys but the company didn’t instantly respond to a request for comment.
Health Canada says parents should put a call through to the Canadian Poison Centre hotline at 1-844-POISON-X if they suspect their child has swallowed a water bead.
For more information on the Health Canada warning, check out the website here.
