Health Canada, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (US CPSC), and Fisher-Price have jointly recalled the Fisher-Price Little People® Builders' Load'n Go Wagon (model number P8977) due to risk of laceration from the underside of the truck's plastic yellow handle. NB: the model with a green handle is not affected by this recall.
The recall came following seven reports of incidents, five of which involved children receiving cuts requiring stitches or surgical glue. No incidents were reported in Canada as yet.
Consumers should immediately take the recalled wagons away from children and contact Fisher-Price for instructions on how to obtain a free replacement handle.
Call Fisher-Price's toll free number 1-800-432-5437 to speak to a Consumer Relations agent or visit their website.
Approximately 2,800 of the trucks were distributed to retail stores across Canada, and 208,000 in the United States between June 2009 to July 2011.
Money can't buy you love...well, unless you happen to live in China, that is. For a not-so-modest sum, a young woman in Beijing can go to a modern version finishing school, in the hopes of bagging herself a rich husband. Yes, it's Gold Digging 101.
The Moral Education Center for Women offers a 30-hour course where prospective gold diggers can learn how to put on make-up, how to spot a liar by his facial expressions (it's all in the forehead, I hear). They can also brush up on their conversational skills and learn how to, uh, pour tea.
Conversely, for a $4,500 introductory fee, wealthy, eligible bachelors get to meet "graduates" of the course. Already there have been 30 matches made at the school, resulting in marriage.
To the school’s founder, Shao Tong, it's just a case of clever marketing. “If I were to advertise the school saying I would like to teach you how to build a good family and to better yourself, lots of girls would rule it out because they feel that they are agreeable and qualified enough. So then I thought, why not be more straightforward by saying: do you want to marry a rich man?”
What do you think? Is it tasteless or laudable to see young women vying so openly for a sugar daddy? Is this course really any different than other dating sites out there?
According to a groundbreaking study published this week in the Journal of The National Cancer Institute, kids who use cell phones aren't at a greater risk of developing brain cancer.
With the increase in cell phone use in recent years, it was thought that kids, with immature nervous systems and smaller head circumference, were more susceptible to developing brain tumours.
Conducted between 2004 and 2008 on kids from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, the study focused on 352 brain cancer patients, and 646 control subjects.
Martin Röösli, Ph.D, of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and his colleagues examined the medical records of 7-19 year olds with brain tumours, consulted data from phone network providers, and then questioned the kids regarding their cell phone use.
Although there has been no increase in the incidence of brain cancer in the past 20 years, Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, President of Environmental Health Trust, believes this latest study is misleading.
"Brain tumours can take ten years to form and young children certainly have not been heavy cell phone users for very long," says Davis. "There has been a quadrupling of cell phone use in the past few years that this study could not possibly capture.”
By downplaying the impact of cell phone use on kids' health, Davis claims the study has done a "profound disservice" to the public.
"If you asked whether people who had smoked only four years had an increased lung cancer risk, you would come up empty-handed."
Davis stressed that other health risks associated with cell phone use -- from behavioural and learning difficulties to insomnia and attention disorders -- should not be discounted.
But before you go and pitch your child's iPhone out the window, consider an alternative means of holding a cell, such as an ear piece or speakerphone.
Carcinogens aside, perhaps the single biggest risk associated with cells is driving while on the phone. But that's a whole other can of worms.
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