Step-It
STEP-iT Happy Meal wristband toy from McDonald’s. (Via cpsc.gov)

Kids looking to work off some Chicken McNuggets will have to track their progress in some other way as McDonald’s announced Tuesday that it was recalling millions of STEP-iT Activity Bands. The action followed more than 70 reports that the plastic device caused skin irritation and burns to some who used it.

In notices on the Consumer Product Safety Commission website and the McDonald’s newsroom, details of the recall show that about 29 million units in the U.S. and 3.6 million more in Canada are affected.

The bands, which come in two styles including the Activity Counter and the motion-activated Light-Up Band, are translucent plastic and come in orange, blue, green, red and purple. Manufactured in China, the devices were designed to track a child’s movement and were distributed in Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals.

Consumers are encouraged by the fast-food chain and the CPSC to “immediately take the recalled wristbands from children and return them to any McDonald’s for a free replacement toy and either a yogurt tube or bag of apple slices.”

CNN pointed to a Facebook post from a mom in Arkansas whose child was burned after playing with his STEP-iT for about eight minutes.

“Nothing is more important to us than the safety and well-being of our customers which is why upon learning about concerns with these bands we acted swiftly to stop distribution of these products,” Terri Hickey, a spokesperson for McDonald’s, said in the company’s news release. “We apologize to our customers who were impacted and for the inconvenience this recall has caused.”

McDonald’s said limited dates of distribution and the decision to stop distributing to customers on Aug. 17 meant many of the wristbands had not yet been given to customers.

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