SYDNEY—Australia's 2007 Toy Of The Year is being pulled from shelves after it was revealed the product's "magic beads" contain a chemical that converts into the toxic illegal drug fantasy when ingested.
Three children have been treated in hospital over the last 10 days after swallowing the beads.
The popular Hong Kong-manufactured craft toy Bindeez have been officially banned in NSW, the ACT, South Australia and Western Australia, with other states likely to follow, after two NSW children chomped on the "magic beads" in the toy and suffered seizures in separate incidents.
In Queensland, a third toddler was rushed to Toowoomba's St Vincents hospital today after putting the toy in his mouth and falling ill.
Testing by scientists in NSW found the chemical link to the drug gamma-hydroxy butyrate (GHB) - also known as fantasy or Grievous Bodily Harm - which can also cause drowsiness, coma and death.
The drug was a factor in the cruise ship death of Brisbane mother Dianne Brimble, a Sydney inquest this year found.
Sydney-based poisons specialist Dr Naren Gunja said the list of Bindeez's ingredients supplied by the manufacturer said it should contain the non-toxic chemical known as 1,5-pentanediol.
"What we've found in the beads from testing done ... by our hospital scientists is that it contains 1,4-butanediol," Dr Gunja said, adding that this chemical was metabolised by the body into GHB.
"It can cause seizure-like activity and fitting, and both of the children that presented to the Children's Hospital at Westmead (in Sydney) had these symptoms ... quite serious effects and potentially life-threatening."
In announcing an immediate statewide ban on Bindeez, NSW Fair Trading Minister Linda Burney today said no stone would be left unturned in the investigation into the toy.
"One of the considerations is how, in fact, such a substance, such a toxic substance, is actually used in a children's toy," she said.
"This Bindeez product is Australian Toy of the Year, it is extraordinarily popular ... we are issuing right now a total banning order right across NSW."
Ms Burney said parents should immediately remove the toy from any area where it can be accessed by children.
Further announcements would be made on a possible refund, she said.
The Bindeez range of products is manufactured in Hong Kong and it is imported into NSW by the Australian firm Moose Enterprises.
Ms Burney said the company had been shocked to learn of the toy's drug links and it was cooperating with the investigation, which would take in whether it was a deliberate act or an accident in the manufacturing process.
Children playing with the toy arrange the variously coloured beads on a plastic grid and then, once sprayed with water, the beads become stuck together and the shape can be removed.
A box slogan says the product has "Magic Beads that join with a spray of water!" but they are not supposed to be eaten.
A warning label on the product says it is not suitable for children aged under four years.
"You use the beads to make designs and then you spray the design with water and it becomes a fixed design," Ms Burney said.
"(But) we all know that particularly young children do, when they get something in their hand, they put it in their mouth."
The two NSW children who fell ill, a boy aged two and a 10-year-old girl, had swallowed at least 60 of the beads.
The mother of 10-year-old Charlotte Lehane, one of the NSW children who fell ill, said she was "beside herself" when her daughter began vomiting, convulsing and passing out.
"She was just in a such a state, she was so unwell, she was pale, and just vomiting and the fitting," Heather Lehane told ABC Radio .
"I can't sleep very well at night because I just wonder what if I didn't try to wake her up? What if I let her sleep a bit longer? What if she didn't actually vomit these beads up? We wouldn't know what was making her sick."
They required intensive hospital care for up to two days but have since recovered.
The ACT and WA today banned the Bindeez product, while Target moved to voluntarily remove it from its stores nationwide.
Victoria said it was awaiting further information on the product.
A representative of Moose Enterprises could not be contacted today at its Melbourne office where there was a public holiday.