Guinea pigs

That’s us.

A woman whose toddler son ingested a popular toy that contains a chemical that turns into a powerful "date rape" drug when eaten said Thursday she knew he was ill when he began to stumble, seemed drunk and started vomiting.

The mother, Shelby Esses, said her 20-month-old son Jacob, fell down and was limp after getting into his older sister's Aqua Dots, a Chinese-made toy recalled Wednesday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Turns out that Aqua Dots contain a toxic chemical, a fact that was discovered when we tested the product. Which we got around to just after children started getting sick.

The toys were supposed to use 1,5-pentanediol, a nontoxic compound found in glue, but instead contained the harmful 1,4-butanediol, which is widely used in cleaners and plastics.

The Food and Drug Administration in 1999 declared the chemical a Class I Health Hazard, meaning it can cause life-threatening harm.

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.

Nope, not clear at all.

Why do we have to wait until after these things happen to test children’s toys for dangerous substances? Why can’t this be done, you know, before children get their hands on them? As it is now, it appears that our children are the canaries in the coal mine, and we’re using them, not tests, to figure out which products aren’t safe.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s about motherfucking time the CPSC gets itself more than one full-time toy tester.

But that’s life under Republican rule. “Small government” is really just a euphemism for defunding public-safety programs, less oversight and zero accountability. “Don’t interfere with the market.” Well the market has given us a year full of product recalls and placed millions of children at risk while the watchdogs are in bed with the industries they’re supposed to be overseeing. It’s way past time to start interfering with it.

Make no mistake: When you vote for a Republican, this is exactly what you’re voting for. You may not support such a policy, but you better believe your vote helps make it possible.

And for all you Bush administration apologists who might be inclined to argue that a high number of recalls indicates increased oversight activity, I remind you that it isn’t necessary to recall products that are identified as dangerous before they make it to the marketplace.

What’s it going to take before we start putting our children’s welfare ahead of corporate profits?

UPDATE: Sign the online petition calling for acting CPSC chair Nancy Nord to resign.