Government approves new safety standards for water beads to prevent the risk of injuries to small children

The Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday approved new standards for water beads, a popular toy that poses a risk to small children if ingested.

Water beads are small, colorful pellets that can be as little as a pinhead when dry but expand when they come in contact with water. Typically, they grow to about the size of a marble. Their slippery, squishy texture has made them a popular element in sensory play for young children.

The risk comes when a child swallows them or sticks them in an ear or nose. Some water beads, particularly versions made in China that the commission says have “flooded” the U.S. market, can expand to as much as 100 times their original size. Ingested water beads can continue growing inside the body, causing serious, even life-threatening, complications. An expanding water bead can also pose a choking risk. Beads inserted into a child’s ear canal can cause permanent hearing loss. Some beads are also made with chemicals that are known to cause cancer.

Between 2017 and 2022, there were an estimated 6,300 water bead-related injuries treated at emergency rooms across the U.S., according to the commission. At least one death of a 10-month-old girl was reported in 2023.

Earlier this year, a mother whose toddler had to have emergency surgery after ingesting water beads issued a warning about the toys during an interview with CBS News.

“During surgery, they found the water beads had caused a blockage inside of her small intestine,” she said. “Because the water beads were marketed as nontoxic eco-friendly and biodegradable, everybody thought that she would be fine.”

The new safety standards will set a maximum size for any water bead toys sold in the U.S., establish limits on the amount of cancer-causing chemicals they can contain and require “strongly worded, easily seen” warning labels on all water bead toys. They will only apply to products that are specifically marketed to children. Water beads intended for use in home crafts or gardens will not be subject to the new rules.

These standards have been a point of contention within the commission, which has viewed water beads as a safety risk for years. Last month, one of its members, Richard Trumka Jr., publicly accused the commission’s Trump-appointed acting chair of blocking the new rules from going forward without offering an explanation.

“Children’s lives are too important for inaction,” Trumka Jr. said in a public statement at the time. “It’s time to get off the sidelines and start working for consumer safety.”

The commission recommends that water beads be removed from any environment where small children may be present, that they be stored in a secure container and that parents pay extra attention when cleaning them up to ensure no beads are left behind in a place that a child could reach.