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Arkansas mother recalls toxic toy horror Wednesday, Mar 5, 2008 By Steve Tetreault Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - An Arkansas mother whose family was thrown into panic when her infant son swallowed a toxic toy last fall was put forward Tuesday as a face behind a bill to toughen consumer safety laws. Shelby Esses fought back tears as she recounted the hours that 20-month old Jack was hospitalized after mysteriously getting sick in their home in Jacksonville the day before Halloween. The child lost consciousness on the way to the doctor. "He would awaken just enough to vomit some more," Esses said, and he was throwing up Aqua Dots, colorful beads from a toy set belonging to his older sister. An investigation later showed the beads, manufactured in China, contained a chemical that turns into gamma hydroxy butyrate, the so-called "date rape" drug, when eaten. Esses, who has told her story on network television and elsewhere, traveled to Washington after being contacted by Consumers Union, one of the organizations promoting a bill by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., to overhaul the Consumer Product Safety Commission. She appeared Tuesday at a news conference beside Pryor, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and an Oregon mother whose 4-year-old son was poisoned after swallowing a lead medallion. The Senate this week is debating the Pryor bill, which doubles CPSC funding over seven years and increases its staff by 20 percent, to 500 by 2013, to oversee consumer safety laws. Among other provisions, the bill bans lead from children's products, creates a public database on unsafe products and requires product codes to be stamped onto toys to help parents identify ones that have been recalled even after they have fallen to the bottom of the toy box. Esses said Jack was taken away from the family at the hospital as doctors responded to the emergency. "They would come out every few minutes to give us updates," she said. "I was sure they were going to tell us that my son was going to die." The youngster showed signs of recovery six hours later and was allowed to go home the next day. Shelby Esses said she was frustrated by not being able to learn more about toy and what made her son sick. "We were all trying to find out information about Aqua Dots and we couldn't find anything, no information on the ingredients or a phone number for the company that would reach a person," Esses said. "If there had been a database we could have turned to that (and) had information about the product, it would have made treating it a lot easier and really put our minds at ease," she said. Pryor said there has been more testing of toy safety amid record numbers of product recalls in the past year, but that has all been voluntary. He said if his bill becomes law, "I think we will have that assurance that these toys will be much safer. You can never have that absolute guarantee but the system will be in place to make sure things are better." |
