Bindeez beads have been permanently banned in NSW after the state’s Fair Trading Department changed the interim ban they enforced in early November. Bindeez, a popular toy product, contained the chemical 1,4 butendiol, which turned into GHB (the party drug fantasy) when swallowed. The product caused illness in children who ingested the toy.
NSW Fair Trading Minister Linda Burney reported that due to the recall, the Product Safety Committee had suggestions as to how toys should be tested in future. "They've recommended that the testing methods to the Australian toy standards be reviewed in the sense of looking at any hazardous chemicals in children's toys, including butanediol," she said.
The committee has also suggested a review of age recommendations for toys.
Moose Enterprises, the company who sell Bindeez in Australia, have arranged to sell a new version of the toy without the harmful ingredient in 2008. The company issued a statement saying the beads would return as a renamed product “easily distinguished from the recalled beads … to help parents easily identify the difference between the new and the old beads".
