Health Canada has issued a recall of nearly 125,000 Nuby liquid-filled teethers - the Icy Bites Teether and Fun Pals Animal Teether - sold between May 2008 and May 2009, as well as over 7,000 Playgro "Toothy Teethers" (not sure those are even sold in the U.S.). The teether models involved in this recall are shown above, and we've noted the recall in the ZRecs Guide listings for each of these products, as well as adding a "viable bacteria" category of hazard for teether listings.

We have no word yet regarding whether this situation meets criteria established for a U.S. recall, but figured parents would want to know. The recall notice provides model numbers you should be able to check to see if teethers you own are part of the contaminated batch.

From Health Canada's recall notice:

Health Canada requires that infant teether fillings must not contain any living micro-organisms. Testing by Health Canada of these 3 teether products has revealed that the liquid filling of the teether is contaminated with the bacteria Bacillus licheniformis (in the case of the Playgro teether) or Bacillus cereus (in the case of the Nuby teethers). These bacteria generally do not cause illness. However, the bacteria can affect children with weakened immune systems, causing stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, if the teether is punctured and the liquid from the teether is ingested.

In 2006 The First Years recalled six teether models in the U.S. that were contaminated with bacterial strains Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas putida.

For the ZRecs Guide, we will begin flagging teether models that have incidences of bacterial recalls and label these as having a "low" confidence level of posing the risk.