'None that are safe': Colorful water beads are child killers so ban them, lawmaker says

Water beads — colorful small balls that expand when they come into contact with liquid — pose a dangerous enough threat to children that they should be banned, one New Jersey congressman says.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone noted that thousands of children nationwide have wound up in emergency rooms after swallowing the beads and said he is introducing the Ban Water Beads Act to stop the scourge.

"People are going say, 'Do you have to prohibit these completely? Are there some that are safe?'" Pallone, the highest ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Monday. "The answer is, no, there are none that are safe. We have to ban them because there's absolutely no way to ensure through any kind of education that they're going to be safe."

Pallone was joined at a news conference by federal regulators, consumer groups and parents whose children ingested beads and, in one case, died.

Pallone's announcement came as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issues new warnings to parents about what it says are the product's safety hazards. Other consumer advocates endorsed the call for a ban.

"Consumers and parents nationwide expect that if a product is on store shelves, and it's available for sale online, that it is safe, and it's tested to be safe," said William Wallace, associate director of safety policy for Consumer Reports. "And that simply cannot be the case with water beads."

Among the parents calling for a ban was Ashley Haugen, a San Antonio, Texas, resident. Her daughter, Kipley was about a year old in 2017 when she swallowed a water bead that her 6-year-old sister had been given as a birthday gift.

Haugen said Kipley began vomiting and was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent emergency exploratory surgery. Kipley survived, but she has needed speech therapy, and her recovery has been slow.

Haugen launched That Water Bead Lady, an advocacy group, after she and Kipley went to the store one day and saw a woman in the checkout line getting ready to purchase beads.

"I looked across and there was a mom with water beads in her hand, and Kipley goes, 'Friend. Safe.' And I just knew," Haugen said. "I walked right over to that mom and told her what happened to Kipley and she put the beads back."

First introduced nearly 20 years ago, water beads are made by a variety of manufacturers that sell them under brands such as Orbeez, MarvelBeeds and AquaBeads. The beads are sold as toys, crafts and sensory tools to people with developmental disabilities, as well as to the agriculture industry.

They are made with polymers that, when combined with water, can balloon 50 to 100 times their original volume. But if children ingest them, the beads can cause a choking hazard or intestinal obstruction. Since the beads are mostly water, they are hard to detect by X-ray, said Dr. Harpreet Pall, chair of pediatrics at K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital at Jersey Shore.

Water beads have been linked to 4,500 emergency room visits since 2017, Pall said.

"This is an entirely avoidable problem," Pall said.

Two water bead manufacturers and a toy industry trade group didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the ban legislation from the Asbury Park Press, part of the USA TODAY Network.

The products typically have warning labels. For example, Target sells a package of 50,000 Orbeez Rainbow Seeds on its web site for $14.99. The page comes with a warning that says: "choking hazard − small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs."

But parents at the press conference said the beads are so small they can be difficult to keep from children. Taylor Bethard, of Mukwonago, Wisconsin, said she thought she had done everything right when she bought water beads for her older children, making sure they only played with them when adults were supervising.

But last summer, her 10-month-old daughter, Esther Jo, ingested a bead, stopped breathing and died, she said, noting that her 2- and 3-year-old children now do CPR on their dolls.

"Esther was a baby," Bethard said. "She never once played with them or was allowed in the same space when they were used. When I learned that a water bead had caused her death, I was shocked."

"I followed the directions. There is no warning about what could happen if ingested. If there had been I would have never allowed water beads in my home for my older kids to use. The risks are far too great," she said.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has updated its warnings about water beads. In September, it announced 52,000 Chuckle & Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits had been recalled and told parents that beads can be fatal to young children if they are swallowed.

Alex Hoehn-Saric, chairman of the safety commission, said the federal process to make rules governing toys and other products can take years and often is tied up in court. In 2014, the agency banned magnetic balls that were being ingested by children. But a federal court overturned the ban two years later.

Speaking at the press conference Monday, Hoehn-Saric said Congress could ban water beads more swiftly than his agency.

The beads "look harmless. They look like they're fun to use. And they're being marketed as crafts, a tactile toy for children with autism, even for ammunition and toy guns," he said. "And it's far too easy for those beads to be dropped and a short time later, a baby or small child ends up finding them, picking them up and ingesting them."

Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry for more than 20 years. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.