McDonald's issues recall for faulty STEP-iT activity trackers

McDonald's struggles with its ill-fated activity trackers keep getting worse, as the company has now issued a recall for all of the wristbands that have made their way into the wild. Folks who are in possession of one are encouraged to take it to a nearby McDonald's store to receive a replacement toy and either a yogurt tube or a pack of apple slices in exchange.

McDonald's started including these activity trackers in Happy Meals earlier this month. While nothing more complex than what is essentially a pedometer, the goal of using it to encourage kids to get active was still admirable to some degree. Then the problems started rearing their ugly heads, leading us to this voluntary recall.

It wasn't long after the roll out of these STEP-iT wristbands that McDonald's started fielding reports of skin irritation or burns, causing the company to stop offering them as Happy Meal pack-ins on August 17, just eight days after they launched. Now, in an effort to prevent further problems, the company is urging everyone to return their defective wristbands as soon as possible.

The recall applies to the US, Canada, and some regions of the Caribbean, as they weren't offered in Happy Meals anywhere else in the world. The good news here is that even though McDonald's manufactured 33 million activity trackers, the fact that they were only offered for a week means that most of them weren't distributed. Given all this hubbub surrounding these activity trackers, we're guessing McDonald's is ready to put this whole mess behind it, and this recall is the final step in doing so.

SOURCE: McDonald's