who's eating Aqua Dots or Bindeez for fun?

[coyote007]

After hearing the reports on the news about a toy that might have GBL on it, one has to wonder how many people who know and enjoy this chemical rushed out to purchase a box before they're all removed and started experimenting with the correct dosage for an adult to have a nice time. I know these people are out there. It would be interesting to find out if there was a brief but dramatic rise in sales moments after the news reports hit the air waves. Anyone know of anyone who's tried 'em? And at what dosage?

[fnord]

grandma instantly started searching ebay for her arts and craft supplies after hearing about this discovery.sadly they seemed to be many other people with the same idea.

[trptamene]

^^^I think probably half the grandma's on this site had the same idea.

[coyote007]

I know my grandma purchased a set last thurs. morning and will recieve them this tues. Fed x told her it is on the way. My grandma's quick for her old age and is always one step ahead of these young "whipper snappers".

[MrG]

Just out of interest, how does Grandma plan on doing an extraction?

Or is she just going to snarf a fistful of beads and let nature take care of the plastic?

[coyote007]

the little tikes that enjoyed them didn't extract anything and had a blasty. if they took a nap but had no other problems an adult should be just fine, without the nap. just try 2. wait half an hour, 2 more, half hour more. the kit comes with 1500 balls.

[Lehendakari]

Check this:

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Pla...t-PG5nov03.htm

Does any plastic expert know if there's any truth on that? It has quite a few references

[Pino]

If it is PVC it is possible carcinogenic. Vinylchloride is carcinogenic, but there is also a possibility the used lead or other toxic compounds to stabilize. All the polyethylene variants would probably be fine, but swim still advice against it. The colourants could be potential toxic. The amount of 1,4-butanediol could vary. The pieces could be a bit sharp. All kind of problems can arise. Swim has heard it before in the media, that additives to plastics are very alike human hormones.

[coyote007]

swim takes massive amounts of human hormones(test.,hgh) if these kids only suffered a nap whats the big concern. mcdonalds is carcinogenic.

[coyote007]

the reports say a 20 month old boy in the u.s. ate several dozen aqua dots and went unconcious. how could one find the exact amount of chemical in the coating of the toy that causes this? the report says it's the coating that causes them to stick together that converts to ghb. how many dots would and adult have to accidently suck on to get a pleasing effect?

[MrG]

How long is a piece of string? - Twice as long as half of it.

Anyone attempting to get a buzz off one of the tainted batches needs to firstly establish that the product they have purchased is from this batch, otherwise they will just be sucking on glue and secondly they will need to approach the matter of dosage in very small steps of trial and error.

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Very good, keep them from eating these. Nobody is waiting on headlines, first confirmed adult dead from chinese killer t...

[Euphoric]

If it's in the coating, could they not be soaked in water and then the GBL somehow extracted/seperated?

Also, SWIM works in retail for a rather large company. Her store did not carry the product, however other stores of the same company did and thus all stores received the warning to pull them off the shelves. Furthermore, there were disposal instructions: "record how many you have, throw them in the garbage." That's right, no sending them back to the supplier, to the police or a chem disposal company. Aqua dots may be sitting in dumpsters behind toy sellers' stores everywhere, and soon to be arriving in city dumps.

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3 Book Reviews

[trptamene]

These actually are thought to contain 1,4-butanediol..it can be tur ned into GBL.

Originally Posted by wiki

1,4-Butanediol is used industrially as a solvent and in the manufacture of some types of plastics and fibers. In organic chemistry, 1,4-butanediol is used for the synthesis of γ-butyrolactone (GBL). In the presence of phosphoric acid and high temperature, it dehydrates to the important solvent tetrahydrofuran. At about 200 °C in the presence of soluble ruthenium catalysts, the diol undergoes dehydrogenation to form butyrolactone.

It is also used as a recreational drug known by some users as "One Comma Four", "One Four Bee" or "One Four B-D-O". It exerts effects similar to γ-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), which is a metabolic product of 1,4-butanediol.

Anecdotal reports indicate that 1,4-butanediol produces a strong toxic feeling not present with GHB when ingested. These reports also indicate that it may cause damage to the liver as well as to other vital organs. Abuse has also resulted in addiction and death.

I wouldn't just eat the toy...like Euphoric suggests, perhaps extracting it and then go on to synthesize gbl...and then on to ghb.

[fnord]

dose anyone know the % of GBL/1,4 B? or the other ingredients in the beads?

[stelfton15]

SWIM has been experimenting with downing just the beads after having bought some Aqua Dots right after hearing about the Australian recall but before the North American one. At first try, SWIM dropped two in a bottle of water, shuck it up for a few seconds and then drank the water. Immediately after, SWIM sucked on the beads after having been in water, but noticed that there was still glue on it, so he then swallowed those two beads. He really didn't feel anything. At second try (earlier this evening in fact), SWIM downed five beads with some water. SWIM is still relatively sober after a few hours later, but definitely feels something as opposed to nothing. SWIM has expressed interest in trying eight next time, hopefully he'll get something more out of it. I told SWIM about the deals with plastics, however he's not too worried about it, claiming that 900 Aqua Dots worth of plastic total won't kill him.

[Pondlife]

The manufacturer was supposed to use 1,5 pentanediol, which is safe and not psycoactive. They substituted 1,4 butanediol to save on costs, as reported here:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g...hBAFwD8SPHKFO4

It's not clear why 1,4-butanediol was substituted. However, there is a significant difference in price between the two chemicals. The Chinese online trading platform ChemNet China lists the price of 1,4 butanediol at between about $1,350-$2,800 per metric ton, while the price for 1,5-pentanediol is about $9,700 per metric ton.

If the manufacturer has substituted one ingredient because of greed, how do you know what else is in there?

We know that BDO causes the main short-term effect, but who's to know that there isn't something that will cause long-term effects, especially if someone has a serious bead habit?

[Pino]

Yes, one could better buy some pure 1,4-butanediol himself instead of eating strange plastic things. Probably cheaper and certainly safer.

I also found a version in which they used 1,4-pentanediol:

A little bit of poking around has yielded some more information about the toxic component in Aqua Dots. It is called 1,4-butanediol and has the formula HOCH2CH2CH2CH2OH. This compound is metabolized in GHB. The version of the toy that was tested contained 1,4-pentanediol, which has the formula HOCH2CH2CH2CH2CH2OH. While 1,4-pentanediol is not harmless, once metabolized it does not have any effects similar to GHB. The two compounds differ only in the number of carbon atoms they contain.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Swim thought after he heard this news.."Wow too bad I didn't know this earlier!A major psychoactive substance in the toy store."But then swim thought hmm if they are putting toxic chemicals in toothpaste who knows what kind of bad stuff might be in these things?Swim just doesn't think scarfing down some toys made in China because they may be part of the batch that contains a chemical that can metabolize to GBL is very safe.

[stelfton15]

SWIM suspects that if there was more than just 1,4B in Aqua Dots that people would consider toxic, news sources would have mentioned it already. If there was more toxic substances than just 1,4B in Aqua Dots, SWIM's sure news sources (particularly the more sensationalist ones like Fox News) would have mentioned it. "A cocktail of deadly chemicals can be found in your children's toy!" versus "GHB found in children's toy." And even if there were other toxic chemicals in Aqua Dots, SWIM doubts it'll be worse than 1,4B, otherwise THAT chemical would have been the one singled out as the cause of all the children's hospitalizations, not 1,4B.

With that in mind, SWIM doesn't believe that 900 Aqua Dots total over his lifetime is enough to do much of anything... at least it's no worse than a lifetime of foods being wrapped in plastics, or all the other chemicals SWIM came in contact with in his youth that has now been banned. Or if SWIM really wanted to be vindictive, SWIM could start listing all the unsafe chemicals and other potentially lethal sources people come in contact with (like brain cell-killing cellphone radiation), and argue that these sources are certainly nowhere as lethal as swallowing Aqua Dots.

A lot of people doubt the resilience of the human body. While SWIM doesn't claim Aqua Dots to be safe, SWIM once again states that he's doubtful they're harmful.

I, on the other hand, probably won't touch the stuff.

[stelfton15]

SWIM tried seven Aqua Dots last night... however since he had a long day of work, he fell asleep in his car while his friends were out bar hopping. Furthermore, when SWIM woke up this morning, he threw up. SWIM suspects that it did work, and this is how it works. SWIM probably won't touch it again.

I told him!

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