From deadly design flaws to toxic ingredients, these banned products once posed serious threats to consumers. Join us as we count down the most dangerous items that have been pulled from shelves due to safety concerns! These hazardous products may have seemed innovative at their time, but they left behind a legacy of injuries, lawsuits, and regulations.
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00:00Are you gonna look for another job?
00:03Anything but dial paint.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks
00:08for the most dangerous products that are no longer available owing to major safety issues.
00:13When was lead paint banned?
00:161978.
00:19Number 10. The Ford Pinto.
00:22He said it's perfectly safe.
00:24That's what they said about the Ford Pinto.
00:26While undeniably beautiful, the Ford Pinto was produced for just 10 years,
00:29between 1970 and 1980, and in that time it became infamous for one major safety flaw.
00:35You see, its fuel tank design made it highly susceptible to deadly fires in rear-end collisions.
00:41Positioned behind the rear axle, the tank was prone to rupturing upon impact,
00:45spilling fuel everywhere, and igniting dangerous fires.
00:49Investigations revealed that Ford knew about the issue,
00:52but chose not to redesign it due to cost concerns, as always,
00:56leading to major lawsuits and public outrage.
00:59The negative publicity, resulting legal battles,
01:01and increased safety regulations led to declining sales,
01:04and by 1980 Ford had discontinued the Pinto,
01:07marking it as one of the most infamous vehicles in history.
01:10Number 9. Numerous diet pills.
01:24Thinking thin.
01:24She's thinking thin.
01:26My Louise, she lost 50 pounds just like that.
01:29Like that?
01:30Like what?
01:31Poof!
01:31What'd you do, put her in a sweat box?
01:35She went to her doctor and he gave her pills you don't want to eat.
01:39These weight loss drugs have a long and controversial history,
01:42dating all the way back to the early 20th century.
01:45Amphetamines were briefly used for weight loss, but they were too addictive.
01:48Banned.
01:49A compound called DNP was used in early diet pills,
01:53but it would cook people from the inside out and cause death by hypothermia.
01:57Banned, but it's coming back.
01:59Parents of a young woman in the UK,
02:01who died after taking a highly toxic chemical compound sold illegally in diet pills,
02:06are to meet government ministers ahead of it being reclassified as a poison.
02:10Campaigners say that tablets containing DNP
02:13have been responsible for the deaths of at least 32 vulnerable adults.
02:17The 1990s saw the rise of a popular weight loss drug called Fen-Phen,
02:21but wouldn't you know it, it was quickly linked to severe heart damage.
02:25Banned.
02:26The list quite literally goes on.
02:28Over the years, the FDA has banned or restricted countless diet pills due to safety concerns,
02:33reinforcing the risks of unregulated and unnatural weight loss solutions.
02:38News 2 Chicago has learned the state's first lawsuit against the makers of the diet drugs
02:41Fen-Phen and Redux will be filed tomorrow.
02:44The class action lawsuit is on behalf of 12 patients now facing the prospect of heart disease.
02:49Number 8.
02:50Flubber.
02:50We've got to give it a name, Charlie.
02:52Let's see.
02:54Flying rubber.
02:55Flying rubber.
02:57Flubber?
02:57In 1963, Disney released Son of Flubber,
03:01a sequel to their smash hit The Absent-Minded Professor.
03:04To coincide with its release, Hasbro released a flubber-like substance
03:08that would stretch and bounce around just like it does in the movie.
03:11However, the goop contained a chemical compound
03:13that gave children sore throats and horrible rashes.
03:17It's the stuff he's concerned stuff.
03:20I don't know what it is.
03:21I don't know where it comes from.
03:23But it will give you one heck of a headache.
03:30It got so bad that some kids needed to be hospitalized,
03:34leading to lawsuits and an investigation by the FDA.
03:37The toy was released during the Christmas season of 1962,
03:40and by May of the following year, it was gone, having been banned for safety concerns.
03:46Turns out, this flubber was more like the blob.
03:49Those people's lives are at stake.
03:51Don't you think I know that?
03:53This isn't one of your textbook exercises, Mr. Jennings.
03:57This is an experiment in biological warfare, or hadn't you noticed?
04:01Number seven, butter yellow.
04:03There's some butter in the kitchen.
04:05So you're here.
04:07What did you answer?
04:08Who left the butter?
04:09Also known as methyl yellow,
04:12butter yellow was a synthetic dye used to color food,
04:15particularly butter and margarine, to enhance their yellow hue.
04:19Why?
04:20Because it looked cool, probably.
04:21It was first synthesized in the 1860s,
04:24and quickly gained popularity due to its vibrant color and affordability.
04:27Can you get the butter, please?
04:29However, with the Xbox One,
04:32I can control my entire entertainment system using voice commands.
04:36Up until now, I've had to use Leonard.
04:37However, concerns over its safety emerged
04:40as research linked azo dyes to various types of cancer.
04:44By 1939, the International Congress for Cancer Research
04:48was recommending it be banned,
04:49and many countries phased it out of production
04:51throughout the following decades.
04:53It was a smart move that reinforced the shift
04:55toward safer, non-toxic food colorants
04:58that, you know, won't give you cancer.
05:00Next up, I'm gonna need some butter in there.
05:04Lubricates the whole meal.
05:07Right, yeah.
05:09Number six, glass clackers.
05:12What are clackers?
05:13The hottest toy in the Netherlands.
05:15Watch the balls.
05:17And now, rapid clacking.
05:20I wanna try!
05:21Kids didn't have a lot of options in the 1960s.
05:24Enter clackers, which consisted of two balls dangling from a string.
05:29When you swung the string and banged the balls together,
05:31they made a loud clacking sound.
05:33Yep, that's it.
05:34The balls were first made of tempered glass,
05:37which is probably the worst idea we've ever heard.
05:40What is that noise?
05:41I can hear it all the way.
05:44Are those clackers?
05:45Unsurprisingly, two glass balls hitting each other at high speeds
05:48often resulted in them shattering into people's faces
05:51and causing all sorts of horrible injuries.
05:54These glass clackers were swiftly banned and replaced with plastic,
05:57although these were also deemed a mechanical hazard
06:01under the gloriously named
06:03United States vs. Article,
06:04consisting of 50,000 cardboard boxes, more or less,
06:08each containing one pair of clacker balls.
06:15Oh, I hurt myself in the face.
06:21And we're here in the collections facility
06:23to introduce this month's featured artifact,
06:25a bottle of Miss Winslow's Soothing Syrup,
06:28a patent medicine that contained morphine.
06:30Man, the 19th century was wild.
06:32In 1845, Maine's Jeremiah Curtis and Benjamin Perkins
06:37introduced Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup,
06:40named after Curtis's mother-in-law, Charlotte Winslow.
06:43This product was widely marketed at the time,
06:45being seen as a miracle cure for things like constipation,
06:48bad breath, and baby teething.
06:51There's a reason it helped ease the pain of teething.
06:53It contained morphine.
06:55Unknown to parents,
06:56each bottle contained a dangerous amount of morphine and alcohol.
07:00Naturally, this posed a severe health risk,
07:02and many people, including infants, suffered its effects.
07:05The medicine's reputation plummeted in the early 20th century,
07:08especially after the American Medical Association
07:11called it a baby killer in 1911.
07:14Despite this, the Soothing Syrup
07:16wasn't officially discontinued until 1930.
07:19The act required the listing of certain ingredients
07:21on product labels, including opiates, cocaine, and cannabis.
07:26Shortly thereafter, the American Medical Association
07:28denounced Miss Winslow's Soothing Syrup.
07:30Number four, Listerine cigarettes.
07:33Hey, you got any cigarettes?
07:36You guys got cigarettes?
07:40No, I'm sorry.
07:40Did you know that Listerine once made their own cigarettes?
07:44Yep, they were introduced in 1927,
07:47about 10 years after Listerine was made widely available
07:50as an over-the-counter mouthwash.
07:52It was part of a broader trend in the early 1900s
07:55when medical cigarettes,
07:57often containing things like menthol, eucalyptus,
08:00or even antiseptics,
08:01were erroneously promoted as health aids.
08:06But everybody else's tobacco's toasted.
08:08No, everybody else's tobacco is poisonous.
08:13Lucky Strike's is toasted.
08:16Like its contemporaries, Listerine cigarettes
08:18were said to soothe sore throats and freshen breath.
08:22And the irony there is so palpable
08:24that we don't even know where to start.
08:25Unsurprisingly, these did not last long,
08:28proving both unpopular and enormously dangerous.
08:31Smoking is smoking, after all,
08:33and a little bit of Listerine inside a cigarette
08:36isn't going to change that.
08:37But you have to realize that
08:38through manipulation of the mass media,
08:40the public is under the impression
08:41that your cigarettes are linked to
08:45certain fatal diseases.
08:47Number three, radium products.
08:49Now, watch me.
08:57Easy enough?
08:58Discovered in 1898,
09:00radium was initially hailed as a miracle element.
09:03In the early 20th century,
09:04it was widely used in consumer products,
09:07including glow-in-the-dark watches,
09:09toothpaste, beauty creams,
09:11and even health tonics.
09:13People genuinely believed
09:14that it had rejuvenating and healing properties.
09:17Once again, the irony is flabbergasting.
09:20The radium girls,
09:22factory workers who painted watch dials
09:24with radioactive paint,
09:25suffered severe radiation poisoning,
09:28and scientists later linked radium exposure
09:31to cancers, bone decay,
09:32and other fatal conditions.
09:34What will happen to our boys?
09:37Which boys?
09:39The divers?
09:40Divers, the firefighters,
09:41the men in the control room.
09:44What does the radiation do to them, precisely?
09:46Regulations were introduced as awareness grew,
09:49and by the mid-20th century,
09:50radium was banned in consumer goods.
09:52Today, it's a strictly controlled chemical element,
09:55unavailable to the public.
09:57100 years ago, you were brushing your teeth with it.
10:00The arteries and veins spill open like sieves,
10:04to the point where you can't even administer morphine
10:06for the pain, which is unimaginable.
10:11Within three days to three weeks, you're dead.
10:16That is what will happen to those boys.
10:18Number two, lead paint.
10:20Place looks like 1960s.
10:24Could have lead paint.
10:25Maybe a 27-year-old has pica.
10:28If it gets us out of here before the owner comes back, yes.
10:31Widely known for its durability,
10:33vibrant color, and resistance to moisture,
10:36lead-based paint was in use for centuries.
10:39It was widely used in homes, toys,
10:41and industrial applications.
10:43You couldn't go anywhere
10:44without breathing this stuff in.
10:46But by the early 1900s,
10:48health concerns emerged as studies linked lead
10:51to poisoning, developmental delays,
10:53cognitive impairments, and fatal organ damage.
10:56What were they gnawing on?
10:58I don't know.
10:58I found particulates of lead paint,
11:00so maybe they were gnawing on some cabinets
11:02looking for food.
11:03Countries began restricting lead paint
11:05in the mid-20th century,
11:06and the U.S. banned its residential use in 1978
11:10after extensive research confirmed its toxicity.
11:13However, it is still being used
11:14in certain applications, like road paint,
11:17and poisoning from flaking walls,
11:19dust, and contaminated soil
11:21remain a public health issue.
11:2290% of the houses in Cleveland
11:24were built before 1978,
11:27which means they most likely
11:28had lead-based paint on the walls.
11:31Before we continue,
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11:47Number one, lawn darts.
11:49A rope, shovel, bag of lime,
11:54and some lawn darts.
11:58Yes, you can still buy lawn darts,
12:01but in a heavily modified form.
12:03The original design hasn't been available
12:05since 1988.
12:06The dangers of lawn darts
12:08were known long before then,
12:09with the FDA classifying the toy
12:11as a mechanical hazard back in 1970.
12:14As such, they were not allowed
12:16to be sold in toy stores,
12:17and the packaging had to clearly inform
12:19buyers that they were dangerous.
12:23Damn it, PETA!
12:24Are you guys playing lawn darts
12:26in the attic again?
12:27No.
12:28Yay, lawn darts!
12:29PETA wins lawn darts!
12:31Yet, they remained legal,
12:32and thousands of injuries,
12:34and even some deaths,
12:36occurred in the years that followed.
12:37It wasn't until the death
12:38of Michelle Snow in 1987
12:41that intense lobbying focused
12:43on the legality of lawn darts,
12:44and both Canada and the US
12:46banned them the following year.
12:48Today, we hunt the most dangerous game,
12:51aside from lawn darts.
12:53Do you remember any of these?
12:55Let us know in the comments below.
12:56Nothing lasts forever.
12:58Just ask a Ford Pinto.
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13:17Did you go to bed?
13:18You're on your own.