Overview
- The squishy toy exploded on July 24, 2026, leaving an eight-year-old boy with second-degree burns to his face and chest and causing his mother to report that skin began to come off when she tried to remove gel from his mouth.
- The Parquet de Saint-Omer has opened a judicial inquiry for 'blessures involontaires' focused on injuries that produce more than three months' total incapacity for work to determine whether a product defect caused the harm.
- France's consumer safety authority, the DGCCRF, has seized the product for laboratory analyses and said it will order withdrawals or recalls if tests show danger or non-conformity.
- The boy's mother told local media the item was a Cool Mix Supergel bought at a Smyths Toys store in Arques, she filed a police complaint according to regional reporting, and her original Facebook post naming the product has since been deleted.
- Authorities point to a wider safety concern for this class of 'squishy' toys after past UK recalls for excessive benzene, a carcinogenic irritant, which frames why chemical testing and possible regulatory action are now underway.