You've spent hours searching for them, scouring the Internet and fighting off crowds in toy stores. But your little one wanted a Zhu Zhu Pet, and by golly, you were going to get it for her.
Now you may want to give it back.
Consumer watchdog group GoodGuide has conducted a study of 30 of this season's hottest toys, including the aforementioned play hamsters, as well as Princess and the Frog Dolls, puzzles from Melissa & Doug and others for chemicals like lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chlorine and other contaminants. Zhu Zhu pets were found by the group to have high levels of antimony and tin. According to GoodGuides, tin "is potentially harmful to the immune and nervous systems," while antimony "may be linked to cancer, lung, and heart problems."
Cepia, the company that makes Zhu Zhu Pets released a statement over the weekend that denounced the testing.
"We are disputing the findings of Good Guide and we are 100% confident that Mr. Squiggles, and all other Zhu Zhu Toys, are safe and compliant with all U.S. and European standards for consumer health and safety in toys", said Russ Hornsby, CEO of Cepia LLC. "All our products are subjected to several levels of rigorous safety testing conducted by our own internal teams, as well as the world's leading independent quality assurance testing organization, and also by independent labs engaged by our retail partners," Hornsby said. "The results of every test prove that our products are in compliance with all government and industry safety standards."
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