Industrial Chemical Is "Date Rape Drug" in Aqua Dots

Aqua Dots toys, which were recalled because the coating has a chemical that causes a comatose akin to a "date rape drug."

Photo: CPSC

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The chemical behind the illness of two children and the recall of Aqua Dots products is called 1,4-butanediol, described by Bloomberg News as a common industrial solvent.

Anyone familiar with toxic waste sites knows that the term "industrial solvent" often is synonymous with "highly toxic." The children who swallowed Aqua Dots vomited violently, went into a coma, and were hospitalized before recovering.

In the case of 1,4-butanediol, it is how the body metabolizes it that matters most acutely.

In the body, the chemical forms gamma-hydroxy butyrate, an illegal date rape drug — so named because it was used to secretly induce a comalike state during which perpetrators raped their victims.

According to an analysis published online in PubMed, a service of the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine, 1,4-butanediol affects the central nervous system. It was marketed in the late-1990s as a dietary supplement, advertised to boost body building, or to treat depression or insomnia. Of nine patients studied, two died.

Besides the vomiting and coma noted in children ingesting the toys, the researchers identified several other symptoms:

• urinary and fecal incontinence
• agitation
• combativeness
• respiratory depression
• death
• addiction and withdrawal symptoms

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