The Knuckleheads of the Day award

Today's winner is Moose Enterprise and its CEO Manny Stul. They get the award for the following.

FIVE children have now been admitted to hospital after swallowing toxic Bindeez beads contaminated with the illegal date rape drug GHB, or fantasy.

However Moose Enterprise, the Melbourne toy company behind the beads - q-have on most youngsters' Christmas wish lists - has refused to reveal the identity of the Chinese manufacturer.

Toy stores worldwide were yesterday on alert following the Australian recall as Moose Enterprise went into crisis mode, hiring top spin doctor firm Royce Communications.

Two pre-schoolers were admitted to hospital in Auckland, New Zealand after injesting the beads and a 19-month-old Toowoomba toddler is recovering in Brisbane's Mater Hospital.

A 10-year-old girl fell unconscious and a two-year-old also needed hospital treatment in Sydney earlier this month but both recovered.

The tiny coloured beads in the Bindeez craft toy are supposed to contain a non-toxic glue which when sprayed with water sticks them together to form shapes.

Tests have revealed some of the ingredients were swapped for the chemical 1,4-Butanediol, which turns into liquid fantasy, also known as GHB, when injested.

It can cause drowsiness, coma and death and was a factor in the death of Brisbane mother Dianne Brimble on the P & O cruise ship Pacific Sky.

Moose believes only some batches of the toys are poisoned and said the company was not aware of and did not approve of the substitition of the chemical.

It plans to add the exceptionally bitter chemical Bitrex to the new shipments of the beads to put children off eating them.

Both the NSW and Queensland fair trading authorities believe the contamination was more likely to be accidental than deliberate.

Moose said yesterday it had been in touch with the unnamed Chinese manufacturers.

Moose CEO Manny Stul said the company's products were manufacturered by "internationally-approved toy manufacturers in China and are subject to world standard international testing

Another Chinese goods disaster. Moose Enterprise not identifying the manufacturer is unconscionable. This company or companies certainly do business in other parts of the world. People need to be warned but Stul and his company refuse to do it. That's my Moose Enterprise and its CEO George Stul are today's Knuckleheds of the Day.

Also blogging on this news- Don Surber, Dr. Taylor at Poliblog,

Linked to- Big Dog, Bright & Early, Leaning Straight Up, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, Populist, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, Third World County,