State officials recommend this holiday season that parents buy name-brand toys for their children and beware of look-alikes which are significantly cheaper on-line. It comes after the state on Tuesday banned sales in Minnesota of off-brand Beyblades-type spinning battle toys which tests found have toxic levels of lead and cadmium. The package for one off-brand looks almost exactly like safe brand names Hasbro and TAKARATOMY. Alister Innes with the state Pollution Control Agency says the name of that problem product is Rapidity, “which we constantly found to have issues…. You can see how the packages are designed to look very similar.”
Ingesting lead or cadmium can cause serious health problems such as delayed brain development, kidney and bone damage, and even death. Babies, children under age six and pregnant women are most at-risk.