SAN ANTONIO – Kipley Haugen cheered when her mom told her Amazon would stop selling water beads as toys.
The colorful, super-absorbent polymer balls nearly cost the 7-year-old girl her life.
“I was shocked,” said her mother, Ashley Haugen, in response to Amazon, Walmart and Target each announcing it would voluntarily stop selling the popular sensory and craft toys as children’s products.
“I think that this definitely sets a precedent for corporate responsibility when it comes to child safety,” Haugen said.
Haugen has been wanting the drastic move for years. She turned activist since Kipley swallowed some of her older sister’s water beads as a baby and got very sick.
Water beads start out tiny and hard, but they grow exponentially in water. If a child swallows them, the beads can grow and grow inside the body. That can cause vomiting, block intestines and cause life-threatening injuries. They’ve been linked to at least 7,800 emergency room visits nationwide since 2016.
Now, extensive testing by the Consumer Product Commission and Consumer Reports has revealed toxic chemicals in some of the squishy beads.
“Tests found chemicals like acrylamide, a likely carcinogen that is also toxic to the brain. And BPA, which has been linked to certain cancers and fertility issues,” Consumer Reports’ Lauren Kirchner said.
But, many packages are labeled non-toxic, a term that Kirchner said is under-regulated.
“I do feel vindicated because I have been talking about this for a really long time,” Haugen said.
After Kipley ingested water beads, Haugen said her daughter was diagnosed with toxic brain encephalopathy caused by acrylamide poisoning.
“For her, it’s meant that she’s needed some extra help when it comes to school, and she needed a lot of therapy when she was younger,” she said.
Haugen, other affected parents and safety advocates aren’t done. Haugen will travel to Washington next month to speak with members of Congress. They are working to ban water beads as toys to get them out of all stores and the hands of curious children.
“They weren’t designed to be toys,” Haugen said. “They never should have been marketed and sold to children as toys in the first place.”