Several local retailers pulled Aqua Dots and related toys from their shelves Thursday, store managers said.

The popular children's toys have been recalled by U.S. safety officials after scientists found that their coating contains a chemical that is metabolized into the drug GHB, commonly called the "date rape" drug. Several incidents of children falling ill after swallowing the toys were reported in the U.S. and Australia.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission urged parents who bought the toys to throw them out.

Managers of the local Target, Wal-Mart and Kmart stores said that Aqua Dots and related toys had been pulled from shelves by early Thursday morning.

Target Corp. has a message board with an urgent news link that relays recalls, said David Lyon, assistant manager of the Bismarck Target store. The local Target removed four related Aqua Dots toys from shelves early Thursday morning and pulled them from its back room as well, he said.

In addition, the company's safeguard system locks out recall items at the till, he said: "We couldn't sell it even if we wanted to."

Kmart also has a system that blocks recall-item purchases at the register, said store manager Dennis Sieber. Kmart also pulled Aqua Dots products early Thursday morning, he said.

Once products are pulled, they are placed in a secure location and labeled; individual stores then wait for instructions as to what to do with them, Sieber said. Some products are ordered destroyed, some are returned, Lyon said.

Curtis Patzell, manager for the south Wal-Mart, said Aqua Dots were pulled from his store on Wednesday.

Lyon said he estimates at least 10 toy recalls were made in the past month. This is by far the biggest year for recalls, "too many to mention," Sieber said. Sieber said the majority of toys recalled were those made overseas.

People are doing more checking on where toys are made, he said, and customers are becoming more selective: "Awareness is a lot higher."

"People are rightfully concerned," Lyon said. "As a parent myself, you look out for the safety of your children all the time."

"This is something we work with all the time," Patzell said. "Generally, there's better publicity that's (coming) out on recalls. Most often, we'll have the product pulled before TV or news (has the story) or very close to the same time,"he said.

"We watch it closer than customers do," Patzell said. "We don't want to be selling a product that causes problems. The communication is really amazing, how quickly we get it."

Customers are "absolutely" concerned, Patzell said. "We're doing everything we can to get information to our customers," he said.

Managers agreed that it was too early in the season to see if this and other toy recalls will affect sales at Christmas.

Parents who wish to sign up for e-mail notifications on product recalls may go to http://www.cpsc.gov/ cpsclist.aspx.