On Dec. 4, a California-based consumer watchdog group announced that testing performed by them on the enormously popular Zhu Zhu Pets showed that levels of the heavy metal antimony were in excess of federal limits. In an announcement picked up by national media, GoodGuide stated that their tests on Mr. Squiggles, performed using a NITON XL3t series X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanner, had detected antimony levels of 93 to 106 parts per million, way in excess of the federal standard of 60 parts per million.

Two days later GoodGuide had to backtrack on its claims. The problem was that GoodGuide had used a different testing method than that used by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The method used by GoodGuide measured the actual amount of antimony detected in the scanned area whereas the CPSC test protocol looks for the amount of soluble antimony available if, say, a child were to stick a toy in his mouth.

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