TOY SLIME will be on the Christmas list of many children across the UK. But, parents may struggle to find slime or putty in some high-street retailers today after they were taken off shelves over health fears.
Some toy slime products have been taken off the shelves of Hamleys on the high-street, and off Amazon’s website, over health fears.
Slime made by Jexybox, Goobands and Essenson was claimed to contain high levels of boron.
HGL, ME Life, and Zuru Oosh products were also revealed to have high levels of boron, according to a Which? investigation.
High levels of boron can lead to skin irritation, diarrhoea, vomiting and cramps.
Long-term boron exposure could also lead to reduced fertility, and possible harm to an unborn child in pregnant women.
“Slime will feature in many kids’ letters to Santa this Christmas, however we’ve found more worrying evidence that children could be put at risk by these toys,” said Which?’s Director of Research and Publishing, Nikki Stopford.
“Parents should have confidence that the products that they buy for their children will be safe, but our latest investigation has uncovered harmful products being sold even by big retailers.
“Again, we’re calling on manufacturers to stop making unsafe products, and for the Government and retailers to step up and do a much better job of ensuring only safe products get into people’s homes and into the hands of children.”
Ten different types of slime and three putty products were tested against the EU safety standard limit for boron.
Five slime products were revealed to have higher amounts of boron that EU standards, said Which?, while one Argos putty product also failed the investigation.
Frootiputti, which is made by Goobands and sold in Hamleys, had four times the permitted amount of boron in its product.
Ghostbusters slime, which is made by HGL and sold by Smyths Toys Superstores, was more than three times over the limit.
But, both manufacturers claimed their products weren’t slime, as Which? categorised, but were actually putty products.
Putty products can have four times a much boron without exceeding the EU limit.
Which? said it was concerned that some products made it onto the toy market by claiming to be putty, as opposed to slime.
