Reports of children becoming unconscious after swallowing Aqua Dots beads led to a voluntary recall of the product in November 2007. At the time, it was widely reported that the potentially toxic chemical 1,4-butanediol (BD) had been used in place of the benign but more expensive 1,5-pentanediol (PD) in the manufacture of the beads.
A new study, led by Dr. Jeffrey Suchard of the University of California, Irvine confirms these reports, finding that Aqua Dots contained no 1,5-PD at all, but had a surprisingly high level – almost 14 percent - of extractable 1,4-BD.
According to the study, consumption of several dozen Aqua Dots beads containing these levels of 1,4-BD, which is metabolized after ingestion to gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), a central nervous system depressant commonly known as a “date-rape drug,” would be enough to induce the reported vomiting and self-limited comas experienced by children that ingested the toys.
The beads did not contain any 1,5-pentanediol. That non-toxic chemical had been completely replaced with the potentially toxic 1,4-butanediol.
Aqua Dots is a children’s toy craft kit that sold millions of units in the United States and around the world. This toy was composed of small colored plastic beads that could be arranged into various shapes which would permanently stick together when misted with water and then allowed to dry. Several children in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom became ill and were hospitalized after swallowing these beads.
The toy kits have since been recalled, however it is notable that poisoning events from consumer products and medications containing toxic diols and glycols have been reported for many decades and continue to occur at fairly regular intervals.
“These chemicals appear to have a knack for being inadvertently introduced into such products, despite their known toxicities,” says Suchard.
The presentation is entitled “1,4-Butanediol Content of Aqua Dots Craft Toy Beads.” This paper will be presented at the 2008 SAEM Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Friday, May 30th, in the poster session beginning at 3:30 pm in Exhibit Hall A of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. Abstracts are published in Vol. 15, No. 5, Supplement 1, May 2008 of Academic Emergency Medicine, the official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.
Press Room – 2008 SAEM Annual Meeting, May 29-June 1, 2008, Washington, D.C.
Location:Park Tower Suite #8229
Tel: (202)-328-2000 (ask for the SAEM Registration Desk)
Fax: (202)-234-0015 (mark for attn of Maryanne Greketis or Sandra Rummel)
Contact Sean Wagner (swagner@wiley.com) to arrange for an interview prior to or during the SAEM Annual Meeting. Dr. Suchard can be reached directly at jsuchard@uci.edu.
About The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (www.saem.org)
The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) is a national non-profit organization of over 6,000 academic emergency physicians, emergency medicine residents and medical students. SAEM's mission is to improve patient care by advancing research and education in emergency medicine. SAEM's vision is to promote ready access to quality emergency care for all patients, to advance emergency medicine as an academic and clinical discipline, and to maintain the highest professional standards as clinicians, teachers, and researchers. The SAEM Annual Meeting attracts approximately 2,000 medical students, residents and academic emergency physicians. It provides the largest forum for the presentation of original research in the specialty of Emergency Medicine. About Academic Emergency Medicine (www.aemj.org) AEM is a peer-reviewed journal whose goal is to advance the science, education, and clinical practice of emergency medicine, to serve as a voice for the academic emergency medicine community, and to enhance the goals and objectives of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). Members and non-members worldwide depend on this journal for translational medicine relevant to emergency medicine, in addition to clinical news, case studies and more.
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