TOXIC CANDY

I love the black humor in their branding, and can see why the products appeal to a certain age-group of children. Even my dog was excited by the odd noises emitted by their website. And the company's facebook site, with about 1,600 fans, offers $1,000 reward to the person who posts the funniest image of eating their candy (I am tempted...).

But I wonder if Circle City Marketing and Distributing (doing business as Candy Dynamics, Indianapolis), foresaw how the labels of "Toxic Waste" and "Nuclear Sludge" children's candy might play in the event that they really turned out to be toxic to children.

And they have. The FDA has announced some of "Nuclear Sludge®" brand ones contain levels of lead above the U.S. FDA's maximum tolerance level of 0.1 ppm). This could cause health problems, particularly for infants, small children, and pregnant women - and especially if they eat several pieces of candy, as many children (and, yes, guilty) adults do. The posts on their facebook site show that fans eat 20 or more at a sitting! In fact, some scientists are concerned that many American children's high levels of lead (not found to be linked to any paint issues), are indeed caused by what they eat - or suck on, such as candy. This is a serious health issue (I'll do a future blog).

The company is recalling all lots and all flavors of the smaller sized "Nuclear Sludge" candies that were distributed from the product's inception in May 2009 through January 2011. These candies were imported from Pakistan. They were distributed nationwide in retail stores and through mail orders in the US, as well as in Canada, and in limited quantities in Guatemala, Ireland, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, El Salvador, South Africa, and who knows where else. Thank you again risky imports.

I am pleased to say that the company is discontinuing the sale of Nuclear Sludge® products in the U.S. (Canada - take action too). Let's just stick to getting our toxic waste from the environment instead of from our candy!

TSF