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Too Much Lead Prompts Recall Of 'Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge' Candy Bars

Turns out the marketer of some candy bars sold under the Toxic Waste brand wasn't joking.

The Food and Drug Administration says Candy Dynamics of Indianapolis is recalling all flavors of its Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Chew Bars after way too much lead turned up in some cherry-flavored bars in California.

The company, citing "an abundance of caution," is pulling all flavors of the bars ever produced. Those would be the sour apple, blue raspberry and cherry chew bars. All of them are imported from Pakistan.

The problem was discovered by the Californian Department of Public Health, found 0.24 parts per million of lead in a batch of cherry-flavored bars. The FDA doesn't allow more than 0.1 parts per million because even a little too much lead can cause health problems for little kids, infants and pregnant women.

The company says its other Toxic Waste candies, marketed on its website as "hazardously sour," are OK and are unaffected by the recall. The potentially lead-laden bars were distributed to stores nationwide and also were sold by mail.

If you've got some of the bad bars, the company says to call (317-228-5012) for instructions on how to dispose of them.

Previously in candy recalls you can't make up: A retailer in Maine pulled bags of "Lobster Poo," a souvenir candy popular with tourists, last September because they contained undeclared peanuts, which could cause problems for people allergic to them.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Hensley edits stories about health, biomedical research and pharmaceuticals for NPR's Science desk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has led the desk's reporting on the development of vaccines against the coronavirus.