§ Mr. Murphyasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will take steps to prohibit the sale of expanding novelties containing any salts of poly (acrylic acid); and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherOn 5 December last I made the Expanding Novelties (Safety) Order 1983 (Statutory Instrument 1983 No. 1791) under the procedure specified in schedule 1, part 1, paragraph 5 of the Consumer Safety Act 1978.
The order prohibits the supply of any article that contains any salts of poly (acrylic acid) or of its copolymers, or any substance that reacts with water to form such salts.
Such articles, if swallowed by a child, could swell up in the gut and cause obstruction and/or perforation of the gut wall, or could become lodged in the trachea or bronchial tubes and swell up, and so possibly cause suffocation.