Watch above: Sunday would have been the perfect day to get soaked playing a game of water balloons, providing they burst on impact as they’re supposed to. Joel Senick talks to one young girl who has welts to prove the ones she had were defective.
SASKATOON – A Texas-based company is reaching out to a Saskatoon mother after she says a brand of water balloons failed to explode on impact, injuring her daughter last Saturday. Amanda Lynchuk says she purchased ZORBZ water balloons from Walmart and noticed something wasn’t right during an outdoor water fight with her kids Saturday afternoon.
“Some of them would hit the cement and still bounce so I don’t know if it was a bad lot or if it was just, you know, the balloons themselves,” said Lynchuk.
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Lynchuk says her seven-year-old daughter Lily developed large welts on her back as a result of the balloons.
“All of us ended up with quite large welts and I mean hers was in the middle of her back,” she said.
After her children complained of pain unusual to other water fights in the past, Lynchuck says she called Walmart, who later told her they removed the product from the shelves of their Blairmore location, where they were purchased. Walmart did not respond to an email asking for confirmation of the move.
Lynchuk was contacted by the creator of ZORBZ Monday to talk about her concerns with the product.
“Just because a product passes safety tests and meets all the criteria which are very stringent, it doesn’t mean the product doesn’t need improvement or doesn’t need to change,” said Kendall Harter, the CEO of Texas-based Blue Matrix Labs, which produces the balloons.
“This is our first issue with anyone getting hurt that we know of or that’s been reported so I think we’ve been doing pretty well, but we need to take heed to the concerns and get better.”
Harter indicated that he planned to send the family the new version of the product next year, which he says is designed to break much easier. He also said he plans to send the family other toys to try out.
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