Glue Balloons, Dangerous To Kids?

[Master Chief]

My kids and their friends have bought this product at the local thai shops, sold as glue balloons.

The smell from these balloons is the same as the glue cement used by glue sniffing drug abusers.

I have forbiden my kids to use this product, but I get no support for this descition from the rest of the thai family, as usual I'm wrong with western crap!

Does anyone of the forum readers know the ingredients of this product?

Read below commercial for this product:

Novelty Toy (Balloon glue)

Description:

The plastic bubble balloon is magic toy for above 4-year-old kids, it blow by plastic straw, it is very light like water bubble, and could touch and play for 7-15minutes, our kids can make a simple model by their creativity with funny, we offer 7 color balloon glue, and one could flash at night, every 5 gram tube can blow 7-10 balloons, our good pass CE certificate with cheap price, it you got interested in, please contact with me without hesitate.

Features:We put balloon glue in colorful aluminum tube, offer 7 color balloon for our client reference. (red, yellow, purple, green, orange, blue and transparency but could fulgurate at night)

http://www.chinatopsupplier.com/d-p1031340...alloon_glue%29/

MC

[dingdongrb]

I don't blame you at all as this is something I would not be letting my daughter play with. Anything that smells like glue is probably derived from glue ingredients. Looking at the website link you provided one of the two products listed next to this 'toy' is glue....

It has me wondering just how reputable this Chinese mfg is. The website for this particular product is 'Safety Approval' and mentions ISO9002. ISO standards have nothing to do with product safety.

[simcity]

i remember i use to play with this past / straw when i was a kid, not a really a new invention then.

must be 40 year ago !

if you can see this product in other countries as USA / Europe / Australia, i presum the test did show it is ok for kids

[PhilHarries]

A lot of people "presumed" that Chinese milk powder was safe for their kids.

dingdongrb you are absolutely correct that, whilst some ISO standards cover safety, ISO 9002 has nothing to do with safety or even actual quality. All it demonstrates, presuming (that word again) it is a genuine certificate the maunfacturer holds, is that the manufacturer produces the good in accordance with laid down quality management procedures. This is all about quality assurance and ensuring the right procedures are followed and approvals obtained in accordance with company policy. It has nothing to do with quality control, QC, or actal physical quality of the finished goods. In fact you can produce goods of utter sh1t quality within ISO 9002 guidelines provided they are assuredly and consistently sh1t. I see a lot of adverts, particularly in S. E. Asia, proclaiming "Manufactured to ISO 9002". This is utter <deleted>, nothing is manufactured to that standard. Often they will also add ISO 14001 which is for Environmental Management Systems again nothing to do with the goods in question.

As for the goods in question I personally would look no further than the source before binning them. If the rest of your Thai family object just ask them do they drink or eat products containing Chinese milk or would they feed them to their children?

Unfortunately I think you'll find that you between a rock and a hard place. Your kids' friends will have this stuff thus your kids will want it too and directly your back is turned your family will provide it for your kids anyway. Many people, not just Thais, have a great difficulty grasping basic safety concepts. It's not helped by the attitude of some westerners who think safety is for wimps until their kids gets hurt then they are bleating tearfully for the cameras whilst on the phone to their lawyers.

My advice, stick to your guns for what it is worth.

[jimmybkk]

I remember having this stuff when I was a kid too. Never did me any harm as far as I'm aware.

[pumpuiman]

I used it as a kid too...not that fun really, so the kids aren't missing much, but I don't think it's harmful.

[haybilly]

My kids and their friends have bought this product at the local thai shops, sold as glue balloons.

The smell from these balloons is the same as the glue cement used by glue sniffing drug abusers.

I have forbiden my kids to use this product, but I get no support for this descition from the rest of the thai family, as usual I'm wrong with western crap!

Does anyone of the forum readers know the ingredients of this product?

Read below commercial for this product:

Novelty Toy (Balloon glue)

Description:

The plastic bubble balloon is magic toy for above 4-year-old kids, it blow by plastic straw, it is very light like water bubble, and could touch and play for 7-15minutes, our kids can make a simple model by their creativity with funny, we offer 7 color balloon glue, and one could flash at night, every 5 gram tube can blow 7-10 balloons, our good pass CE certificate with cheap price, it you got interested in, please contact with me without hesitate.

Features:We put balloon glue in colorful aluminum tube, offer 7 color balloon for our client reference. (red, yellow, purple, green, orange, blue and transparency but could fulgurate at night)

http://www.chinatopsupplier.com/d-p1031340...alloon_glue%29/

MC

I agree with you--my daughter and her friends were blowing 'balloons' using the same stuff that you show here, albeit a cheaper and less 'well packaged' version--all the blurb was in Thai/Chinese and the tubes were lead not aluminium--but the results were the same--sticky bubbles that the kids have to orally inflate whilst ingesting the glue vapours--I tried to stop the kids playing with it immediately but was met with stiff resistance [ nearly tears] so had to resort to making the remaining tubes 'disappear' later on--never to reappear.

Incidentally, I also remember playing with a similar substance about 45 years ago, in UK, and I went on to develop a glue-sniffing habit!! Not really, but just because it was sold to kids in the west many years ago does not necessarily mean that the stuff is safe--plenty of things around then have since been proven to be dangerous/unsafe/unhealthy etc..........

[neverdie]

Theres nothing like letting your kids play with something that 'might be' dangerous & then when something goes wrong you can jump up and down on TV! Good on ya Dingdongrb....you get my vote for both 'looney of the year 2008' PLUS 'Thai Visa Father of the Year 2008'.

[dingdongrb]

Theres nothing like letting your kids play with something that 'might be' dangerous & then when something goes wrong you can jump up and down on TV! Good on ya Dingdongrb....you get my vote for both 'looney of the year 2008' PLUS 'Thai Visa Father of the Year 2008'.

Gosh....Darn...Thanks ND..Where do I pick up my trophies at?

[dingdongrb]

A lot of people "presumed" that Chinese milk powder was safe for their kids.

dingdongrb you are absolutely correct that, whilst some ISO standards cover safety, ISO 9002 has nothing to do with safety or even actual quality. All it demonstrates, presuming (that word again) it is a genuine certificate the maunfacturer holds, is that the manufacturer produces the good in accordance with laid down quality management procedures. This is all about quality assurance and ensuring the right procedures are followed and approvals obtained in accordance with company policy. It has nothing to do with quality control, QC, or actal physical quality of the finished goods. In fact you can produce goods of utter sh1t quality within ISO 9002 guidelines provided they are assuredly and consistently sh1t. I see a lot of adverts, particularly in S. E. Asia, proclaiming "Manufactured to ISO 9002". This is utter <deleted>, nothing is manufactured to that standard. Often they will also add ISO 14001 which is for Environmental Management Systems again nothing to do with the goods in question.

As for the goods in question I personally would look no further than the source before binning them. If the rest of your Thai family object just ask them do they drink or eat products containing Chinese milk or would they feed them to their children?

Unfortunately I think you'll find that you between a rock and a hard place. Your kids' friends will have this stuff thus your kids will want it too and directly your back is turned your family will provide it for your kids anyway. Many people, not just Thais, have a great difficulty grasping basic safety concepts. It's not helped by the attitude of some westerners who think safety is for wimps until their kids gets hurt then they are bleating tearfully for the cameras whilst on the phone to their lawyers.

My advice, stick to your guns for what it is worth.

PH...I think your first sentence pretty much sums up what I said, ISO9002 has nothing to do with safety... Having been an internal ISO auditor for numerous years at numerous companies it is merely what you said, "is that the manufacturer produces the good in accordance with laid down quality management procedures"... Basically it says that company documents what it's processes are, and then follows the processes to manufacture a product... Yes you are correct, a company can say how they produce chit and as long as they follow their processes and the chit is manufactured in accordance then they are ISO compliant. However there are a few guidelines that the ISO standards say one must follow and a few off of the top of my head have to do with:

Record keeping and archiving (i.e. Test records, training records, etc.)

ESD standards (ESD = ElectroStatic Discharge)

Calibration to NIST standards (for test equipment)

Internal company audits (schedule and documenting)

ISO is basically a marketing tool and is just a 'dog and pony' show for customers as real manufacturing typically does not always follow the ISO processes unless of course as customer visit is at hand or and ISO audit is occurring.

Back to the topic.....If the product in question looks like glue, smells like glues, and tastes like glue....then it's probably glue and I wouldn't want that around my child's mouth.

[katana]

They were sold as toys in the UK too, a few decades ago. Also seem to remember being able to buy luminous paint in toy shops as well, hopefully it was the non-radium type.

[jdinasia]

Better never let them have a bike! or build a model! or use a squirt gun!

[Hairy]

Remember AquaDots? Those were some sort of little plastic beads that were coated with glue, the kids would make mosaics out of them and then wet them down to make the dots stick together.

Only problem was, the Chinese contract toy manufacturer substituted into the glue a chemical that metabolizes into GHB ("the date-rape drug") when eaten. A few small children died from eating the little beads, and many more went on their first drug trip.

When used as directed, and manufactured as intended by the designer, the plastic-bubbles stuff is probably safe. OTOH it wouldn't surprise me to learn that kids are abusing it (just as they do with model airplane cement) or that a Chinese contract manufacturer substituted toxic or intoxicating chemicals for semi-safe ones specified by a toy company.

[PhilHarries]

Of course many of us may remember playing with lead toy soldiers, our cribs/playpens painted with lead base paints, inside buildings with asbestos insulation, riding motor bikes with no crash helmets etc etc.

All these things are but distant memories to us from the west.

Did the Chinese initiate the changes in safety regulations that abolished this stuff?

[Farma]

I took one smell of that stuff and threw it away. I’ve no idea what the chemical is but it sure smells like some of the nasty thinner type liquids I’ve worked with that require the use of masks as protection from the vapours.

[geriatrickid]

The product is banned in most of the west as a health hazard. Justifiably so. Children should not be inhaling organic compounds. They were around when I was a kid too, until the MoH said uhhh whoa, what's up with the lung injuries and nose bleeds. If I am not mistaken, the solvent is still an aromatic family member ( reactive 6 carbon ring) and just as we don't douse ourselves with benzene, toluene etc., we shouldn't allow children to play with carcinogens, deadly and toxic at that.

Good parenting decision and one that protects your kid's health at no cost save for some resentment. Perhaps you might wish to explain in detail why put your foot down. Who knows, maybe your child will share that knowledge with friends and save some other kid's life.

[skiman1]

Theres nothing like letting your kids play with something that 'might be' dangerous & then when something goes wrong you can jump up and down on TV! Good on ya Dingdongrb....you get my vote for both 'looney of the year 2008' PLUS 'Thai Visa Father of the Year 2008'.

Do you want some lead based paint to "brighten up" the kids play area or maybe some asbestos sheets for them to play with ?