Warning about Chalk
I found this information about the Miraculous Chalk. Be careful!
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to warn the public not
to purchase or use an insecticide product sold under various names including
"Miraculous Insecticide Chalk," "Pretty Baby Chalk," and "Chinese Chalk."
A package of Miraculous Insecticide Chalk, manufactured by a cosmetics
firm in the People's Republic of China, looks like a box of blackboard chalk.
The product has been imported into the United States illegally. Between
1992 and 1995, Poison Control Centers nationwide received 668 reports of
poisoning incidents involving insecticide chalk. The packaging also
contains high levels of lead and other heavy metals, increasing the risk to
children.
The chalk is sold illegally for insect control. It is imported illegally from China
and other countries, and advertised as effective against roaches, ants, and
other household pests when a line of chalk is drawn along the floor or
baseboards. Between 1992 and 1995, Poison Control Centers nationwide
received 668 reports of poisoning incidents involving insecticide chalk. EPA is
cooperating with states and tribes in an effort to stop the sale and use of this
hazardous product.
On September 26, 2001, the EPA announced it had 15 businesses in Hawaii,
California, Nevada, and Guam for selling illegal naphthalene and
paradichlorobenzene mothballs, "insecticidal chalk" and other products,
some of which can poison children who may mistake them for toys or food.
Selling unregistered products such as these is a violation of the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
The chalk is sold at swap meets, flea markets, and urban ethnic grocery and
hardware stores. In recent months it has been advertised in newspapers and
on the Internet. City of Fort Worth Code Compliance officers have found the
chalk in abandoned homes.
The product, which children could easily mistake for common blackboard
chalk, contains deltamethrin and cypermethrin, a class of insecticides
(synthetic pyrethroids) that act on the nervous system. The packaging
contains no list of ingredients or consumer warnings. Overexposure can
produce serious health effects, including vomiting, stomach pains,
convulsions, tremors, coma, and death due to respiratory failure. Serious
allergic reactions are also possible.
There are also high levels of lead and other hazardous metals in the product's
colorful packaging. Thus, the packaging itself is hazardous to children and
adults if they handle the box or place it in their mouth.
If you have purchased this product, please don't use it! Place it in a plastic
bag and drop it off at the City of Fort Worth's Environmental Collection Center,
6400 Bridge Street, (817-871-5257) so that we can make sure it is disposed
of properly. The collection center is for Fort Worth residents and residents of
participating cities.
