WASHINGTON – A Massachusetts company on Friday recalled 500,000 liquid-filled baby teethers distributed in the United States and Canada because of a possible bacterial contamination that could cause serious illness.

Six styles of teethers may be contaminated with the Pseudomonas aeruginosa or the Pseudomonas putida bacteria in the liquid, manufacturer The First Years Inc. said in a statement. If the teether is punctured and the liquid ingested, the bacteria can cause serious illness in children.

No illnesses have been reported, the company said.

Three of the products affected feature popular cartoon characters. The Disney Days of Hunny Soft Cool Ring Teether, bearing style number Y1447, and the Disney Soft Cool Ring Teether, bearing style number Y1470 or Y1490, feature Winnie-the-Pooh characters. The Sesame Beginnings Chill and Chew Teether, style number Y3095, features Sesame Street characters.

The other teethers recalled are The First Years Cool Animal Teether (style number Y1473) and The First Years Floating Friends Teether (style number Y1474). These feature fish and other animal graphics.

Major retailers, including grocery, drug and specialty stores, sold the product nationwide and in Canada from July 2005 through January 2006. For information, call the company at (866) 725-4407 or visit www.thefirstyears.com or www.fda.gov.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the voluntary recall of L.L. Bean’s auto safety kit, auto aid in a bottle, winter safety kit, and outdoorsman in a bottle products.

About 4,100 of the products have a flashlight that relies on a powerful magnet and copper coil for manual recharging. The magnet adversely affects the polarity of the compass rendering it unreliable. The magnet could be powerful enough to disrupt a heart patient’s implantable cardiac defibrillator. No incidents or injuries have been reported.

The kits were sold through stores, catalogs and Web sites of L.L. Bean of Freeport, Maine, from August 2005 through November 2005 for between $20 and $60.

For more information, consumers can contact L.L. Bean at (800) 555-9717 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, or visit their Web site at www.llbean.com.

– From Wire Service Reports