TV.com

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment UK said Tuesday it has issued an emergency recall notice for a potentially harmful charm bracelet contained in about 8,000 special Shirley Temple DVDs on sale here since August 7.

Targeted at young girls, the range of Chinese-made bracelets and charms are a potential safety concern because they contain lead, which is highly toxic if ingested.

The release went ahead despite similar problems with the product in the US that led to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission issuing a recall notice for some 730,000 units on May 5.

Fox said in a statement that, until last week, it believed that the charms and bracelets being produced for the UK promotion conformed to the correct safety standards and that the problem had been corrected since the US issue.

"Fox's legal team is currently carrying out an investigation with the third party involved in producing the charms, and they are working closely with Trading Standards to carry out tests to see if they do actually carry a potential risk," the company said. "Thankfully, the UK is the only territory affected in this instance."

The Chinese-made bracelets are in specially marked pink DVD cases and pink triple-pack slipcases with a white bow at the top. Each case/slipcase carries a "Free Charm Bracelet Inside" sticker.

In addition to setting up a special DVD Charm Recall Telephone Hotline to handle all UK inquiries, Fox said it is developing a poster for retailers in addition to consumer press advertising to communicate the recall.

"The safety of customers is very important to us and we take matters of this nature extremely seriously and apologize for any upset or inconvenience that this may cause," Fox added.

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