Strawberry flavoured erasers and poison marked pens

OFFICIALS from the Ministry of Commerce were yesterday trawling through shops in Cyprus in search of dangerous erasers and poisonous marker pens, deemed a danger to children’s health.
The Ministry was made aware of the problem when a young boy was rushed to hospital in Greece to have his stomach pumped after accidentally swallowing some of the jelly fluid contained in the marker pens, named “mini gels”.

Cypriot authorities were immediately notified about the toxic pens through the Rapid Exchange of Information service of the EU.

A search was immediately launched to track down the marker pens and withdraw them from the market.

Although none of the pens were found, officials were shocked when they came across a range of scented erasers in the shape of ice creams, strawberries and other types of food.

Fearing that small children may attempt to eat them due to their appearance and smell, they were declared a danger and taken off the shelves in various shops.

According to the law, it is strictly prohibited to retail items that may endanger the health and life of the consumer by being deceiving in appearance.

From now on, checks will randomly be made on retailers to ensure that dangerous products such as these are not sold to the public.

Authorities are also thinking of checking shops’ past price lists in order to determine whether any of the dangerous marker pens have already been sold.

Parents are also being warned about the harm these products can cause and are urged to be extra cautious when it comes to shopping for the new school year.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.