“Squeeze it!” the package screams. “Works like a yo-yo! Spin it! Throw it!”
The squishy, liquid-filled yo-yo water ball has become a hit with kids across the country, a sort of yo-yo for the 21st century. You can squeeze it and see the mysterious gooey liquid ooze around, or throw it and see it rocket back to your hand like a boomerang on a string.
But, as Skokie resident Lisa Lipin discovered, you can also swing the ball like a lasso — and end up in the emergency room.
After her 5-year-old son nearly strangled himself with a yo-yo water ball in July 2003, Lipin decided to take it upon herself to get the toys banned. Although she had never seriously become involved in political advocacy before, Lipin was angry enough to contact anyone she could for help.
She called U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky. She called state Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg. She wrote letters to the chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. She and her son, Andrew, testified before the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee. She even started her own Web site to raise awareness about her cause.
“I’m not stopping for anything less than a ban,” Lipin said. “Nothing should keep us from saving the life of a kid.”
Lipin’s determination to have the toy banned in the United States, coupled with the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s refusal to do so, persuaded Schakowsky and Schoenberg — both Evanston Democrats — to join Lipin in her crusade.
Schakowsky “strongly believes in citizen action,” said Nadeam Elshami, Schakowsky’s press secretary. “Lisa is a great example of that.”
Lipin’s citizen action paid off on April 28, when Schoenberg’s resolution encouraging the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban yo-yo water balls unanimously passed the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee.
So far the Consumer Product Safety Commission has continued to follow the findings of a September 2003 investigation into yo-yo water balls, which stated that the toy “does not meet congressionally mandated standards for product recall.”
In the September study, the commission found that a yo-yo water ball can pose a low risk of strangulation for younger children because the cord can wrap around a child’s neck if the ball is swung like a lasso.
But the findings weren’t strong enough to warrant a recall, said Ken Giles, spokesman for the commission.
“The conclusion was then and remains today that we cannot make the legal findings required by the Consumer Product Safety Commission Act to take mandatory action,” Giles said.
As of September the commission had uncovered 186 incidents in which yo-yo balls had been wrapped around a child’s neck. But now that number is at more than 350, Lipin said.
The number of complaints about yo-yo water balls — not their severity — should force the Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue a ban, said Elshami, Schakowsky’s press secretary.
“The Consumer Product Safety Commission should be about consumer protection,” he said. “That should be their number one priority. When you have that many complaints about a toy, it needs to be pulled.”
Schakowsky and Schoenberg’s help gave her mission credibility, Lipin said.
“You have to have politicians to go to bat for you,” Lipin said. “I truly believe that had Congresswoman Schakowsky not gotten involved and not written letters, (the Consumer Products Safety Commission) would not have gotten involved.”
James Swartz, director of World Against Toys Causing Harm, which placed yo-yo water balls on its 2003 “10 Worst Toys” list, said that Lipin’s dedication has been encouraging.
“To her credit, she’s really persevered,” Swartz said. “She hasn’t taken ‘no’ for an answer to what she and many others consider to be a serious safety issue.”
