Zhu Zhu Pets Toxic: Safety Group

California consumer safety group Good Guide has done testing on some of this year's hottest holiday toys, and Zhu Zhu Pets, perhaps the hottest toy of the season, have been found to contain quantities of toxic materials. Shades of the Chinese toy scandals from just two years ago.

Good Guide independently tests products for the presence of toxic chemicals. It said Zhu Zhu Pet Hamsters tested positive for higher than acceptable levels of the metals antimony and tin. Zhu Zhu Pets, however, are so popular that they remain sold out at many retailers.

Antimony poisoning is very similar to arsenic poisoning. It can cause headache, dizziness, and depression in small doses. Larger doses can cause violent and frequent vomiting, and eventual death. Tin is also a heavy metal and can cause similar symptoms and poisoning.

Zhu Zhu Pets are manufactured in China (where else?) and distributed by Cepia in the U.S. Good Guide assigned the toy a rating of 5.2 on a 10-point scale. Cepia defended the safety of Zhu Zhu pets in a statement.

China Admits to Harvesting Organs From Prisoners

It's like a science fiction story. Harvesting organs from prisoners? Yet China has admitted to doing so.

According to a report in the China Daily newspaper, citing unnamed experts, executed prisoners currently provide nearly 2/3 of all transplant organs. China executes more people than any other country. Amnesty International said at least 1,718 people were executed in 2008.

There's a reason China takes organs from prisoners, however. Well, besides the obvious one. There is cultural bias against removing organs after death. So, while the government is announced Wednesday a voluntary donation program, which it hopes will also curb illegal trafficking in organs, the odds of success are not high.

To this date, in fact, only 130 organ transplants have ever been performed in China using donors who consented to have their organs used after their death.

At least publicly, China acknowledges that the use of organs from executed prisoners is a problem. The China Daily quoted Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu as saying that condemned prisoners were "definitely not a proper source for organ transplants."