Chemical found in Zhu Zhu Pets, says consumer group

Sunday, 06 December 2009 | by Pat's Picks

The consumer group Good Guide says one of the hot toys for Christmas, the Zhu Zhu Pet, is unsafe. A report in the Chicago Sun-Times says the distributor of the toy disputes the conclusion and says the product went through rigorous safety checks. The concern came after a test found the chemical antimony in a computerized hamster.

UPDATE: Go ahead and buy those Zhu Zhu pets - if you can find them. The federal government says this year’s hottest holiday toys do not violate safety standards.  A spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission says the toy is not out of compliance with a US toy safety law that went into effect this year. The agency did not test the toy. The independent watchdog group, Good Guide said its tests showed a heavy metal in the Mr. Squiggles model of the popular robotic hamster toy. But the group now says it was wrong to make that claim and that the levels of the metal in the toy do not exceed federal limits. A spokesman for the company that makes Zhu Zhu pets says the claim has not slowed sales.