(CNN) -- The maker of Zhu Zhu Pets, one of the hottest-selling toys of the holiday season, defended its product after a consumer Web site said one of the robotic hamsters carries high amounts of a dangerous chemical.
Mister Squiggles, the light-brown version of the hamsters, has unsafe levels of antimony, said Dara O'Rourke, co-founder of GoodGuide.
The chemical can cause cancer, lung and heart problems, according to GoodGuide.
"We found levels of about 93 to 106 parts per million," O'Rourke said. "The new federal standard is about 60 parts per million."
But the toy manufacturer, St. Louis, Missouri-based Cepia LLC, said its products are safe.
"All our products are subjected to several levels of rigorous safety testing conducted by our own internal teams, as well as the world's leading independent quality assurance testing organization, and also by independent labs engaged by our retail partners," Russ Hornsby, CEO of Cepia, said in a written statement. "The results of every test prove that our products are in compliance with all government and industry safety standards."
Bruce Katz, a senior vice president of Cepia, told CNN: "They do not contain high levels of antimony in any way. "None of these tests have failed over the many months we've been producing this product."
And what the heck is antimony, anyway? Oh, yeah, some lead derivative. What a crock.
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