SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio mother has warned about toxins in water bead toys for years. Now, government tests are backing her up.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says its tests found high levels of acrylamide, a known carcinogen, in two brands of water beads.
Water beads start out tiny and look like innocent fun. They are made from a superabsorbent material that grows dramatically in water.
If a child swallows or inhales water beads, they can expand in the body, which poses a slew of risks, including choking, infection and even death.
In addition, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is issuing new warnings after it found acrylamide in two brands of water beads sold on Amazon: Jangostor and Tuladuo.
“Acrylamide is harmful to the nervous and reproductive systems and the brain,” Gabe Knight with Consumer Reports said.
“I have been talking about this for a very long time,” Ashley Haugen said.
Her daughter, Kipley, swallowed another brand of water beads as a baby seven years ago and became very ill. Emergency surgery saved her life, but later, new problems arose.
Kipley was eventually diagnosed with toxic brain encephalopathy caused, her mother said, 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,” Haugen said.
Amazon says that as of December, they do not allow the sale of water beads marketed to children, including as toys. Amazon says it is warning people who bought these two brands of water beads and issuing refunds.
That may not entirely solve the problem.