Anatomy of a Recall

The NYT has a fascinating story about how an Australian physician figured out the problem with “Bindeez” beads — a toy that, when ingested, metabolizes to GHB (the banned date rape drug).  As Consumerist puts it, the story reads like an episode of House.

(My dad, a retired electrochemist, suggests that the problem is likely the “diphthalate ester of the butanediol” — i.e., related to phtalates, a plasticizer used ubiquitously.  He continues: “I suspect the same enzyme system that converts ethanol to acetate would convert the butanediol to [GHB].”)

Foreseeable?  Should’ve tested?

–BC