fizt4hire: In the U.S., the toys are called Aqua Dots. (They’re called Bindeez in Australia.) They *should* be pulled from all toy-store shelves at this point.

Concerned: Judging by the AP article, it sounds like it really was the fault of the Chinese manufacturer. Like you said, they “use[d] a ’substitute’ (un-authorized) chemical”—1,4-butanediol instead of 1,5-butanediol. Your point about not sensationalizing the errors of Chinese manufacturers is a good one. I suspect that there really is a problem with product safety at Chinese manufacturers, though not necessarily any worse than manufacturers in other developing nations. Of course there are product-safety issues in developed nations, too, but they’ve had longer to adjust to new threats like modern chemicals and mass production, and we may have better safeguards, in general, than developing countries.