Consumer Product Safety Commission

New Warning That Water Beads May Pose Risk of Toxicity to Children

The warning illustrates some of the safety challenges consumers face on e-commerce platforms

 |  Blog Post

Today, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) released public warnings, directing consumers to stop using Tuladuo Water Bead Sets and Jangostor Large Water Beads. The beads contain levels of acrylamide in violation of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. Tuladuo US and Jangostor, both based in China, sold the water beads sets on Amazon. Both companies have not agreed to an acceptable recall. The CPSC warning further states that Tuladou US has not responded to CPSC’s request for a recall. Beyond underlining the serious risks water beads pose to children, the warning further illustrates some challenges consumers face in an increasingly online world.

Water Beads: A Serious Safety Risk

Water beads are water-absorbing balls, often brightly colored, and sold as toys or sensory products. Water beads present a serious ingestion risk to children because the product expands significantly and has lead to lifelong injuries and death. In 2023, CPSC announced that evidence demonstrated acrylamide toxicity in some water bead products.

In December 2023, Amazon and other retailers announced a commitment to stop selling water beads. Disappointingly, water bead products are still easily accessible on the online platform.

Today’s warnings confirm that water beads continue to pose a serious health and safety risk to consumers, especially children.

Constraints on CPSC Hurt Consumers, Protect Industry

CPSC is tasked with protecting the public from unreasonable risk of injury and death from more than 15,000 product categories. Despite the scope and importance of its work, the CPSC’s budge is substantially smaller than any other federal consumer protection agency. Further, because of uncertainty about its budget and the expectation that its already small budget will be cut further, CPSC’s safety efforts are slowing.

Beyond its serious budgetary constraints, CPSC also has unique restrictions in its public disclosure of information. Section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act prohibits the CPSC from disclosing information about a consumer product that identifies a manufacturer or private labeler unless the CPSC has taken “reasonable steps” to assure that the information is accurate, the disclosure is fair and reasonably related to effectuating the purposes of the CPSC. As such, the CPSC must provide the manufacturer or private labeler with an opportunity to comment on the accuracy of the information, and the CPSC may not disclose such information for at least 15 days after sending it to the company for comment. The reality, however, is that the process between the CPSC and manufacturers or private labelers often takes many years before the information can be disclosed to the public. In the meantime, the hazardous or dangerous product is allowed to flood the marketplace.

Unfortunately, sometimes companies do not respond to a request for a recall. In a recent speech, CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric described foreign manufacturers utilizing e-commerce websites to sell products then ignoring CPSC outreach or disappearing. Under current leadership, the CPSC has begun to issue substantially more unilateral warnings to the public about hazardous products. CPSC unilateral warnings are an important tool for the CPSC but does not solve the issue of dangerous and hazardous products already in homes.

Liability Challenges

As online shopping becomes more prevalent, the number of third-party sellers on platforms like Amazon has risen considerably. In addition to the serious safety implications described above, injured consumers or their family may be unable to obtain a judgment against a third-party seller. Further complicating matters, courts have reached different conclusions about the liability of online platforms.

What can you do?

  • Throw away any water beads in your home and do not purchase water beads! Contact your daycares, schools, or therapy providers to share the dangers of water beads.
  • Visit That Water Bead Lady to read more about Ashley Haugen’s advocacy and Kipley’s journey. Use That Water Bead Lady’s educational materials, which include a letter template requesting your school/therapy stop water bead use, a social media messaging guide, and information to share with your health care provider.
  • Contact your elected officials. Let them know you support the CPSC and that it should be fully funded!
  • Contact your elected officials. Let them know you support a ban on water beads.
  • Urge elected officials to support the CPSC in its critical mission to make the marketplace more focused on consumer safety. Encourage elected officials to protect the CPSC from efforts to undermine its authority to keep consumers safe.  Let their elected officials know that consumers deserve timely information about the potential hazards in their homes.
  • Urge your elected officials to support the CAP Act, which would raise the statutory caps on CPSC civil penalties to deter future bad behavior, especially form large corporations.
  • Report any consumer product incidents to CPSC at SaferProducts.gov.