Slashdot Mirror
China Considering Cuts In Rare-Earth Metal Exports
SillySnake sends in a report from the Telegraph on draft plans in China to restrict exports of rare earths. "Beijing is drawing up plans to prohibit or restrict exports of rare earth metals that are produced only in China and play a vital role in cutting edge technology, from hybrid cars and catalytic converters, to superconductors, and precision-guided weapons. A draft report by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has called for a total ban on foreign shipments of terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, and lutetium. Other metals such as neodymium, europium, cerium, and lanthanum will be restricted to a combined export quota of 35,000 tonnes a year, far below global needs."
Lead paint(makes kids retarded)
Y'know, I've always wondered about this one. I have never said to myself, "Self, those paint chips look pretty yummy, let's try a few!". Kinda makes me wonder if we don't have a... shall we say "selection bias" in kids who eat lead paint experiencing neurological problems.
melanine(kills cats)
Do you like your magic erase sponges? 99% Melamine with a surfactant added. Do you have formica countertops? also mostly melamine, with a resin added to harden it. But not a very good pet food, no.
drywall(poisons houses)
Phosphogypsum only causes problems in modern energy-efficient houses with little outside air exchange. Gypsum (including Phosphogypsum) occurs as a natural mineral virtually everywhere in the world, including the US. We make our own drywall domestically, and only post-Katrina did we have a need to import it. China met that demand, except we got burned for not knowing that they don't differentiate between the two minerals (physically more-or-less identical, for their use in drywall). Not a case of fraud byt the manufacturers, so much as the importers not wanting to ask too many questions.
heparin(kills people dead) and keep them for their own internal market?
Although this amount to outright fraud by the companies involved, the deaths came not from a specifically unsafe product, but because of allergic reactions to a much cheaper but similar chemical. Again, no defense whatsoever for selling chemical-P as chemical-Q, but you have to wonder why our medical establishment would rather use an expensive drug that requires raising and torturing livestock to produce, rather than a nearly identical drug with no pigs involved... And the deaths in this situation don't answer that question, because plenty of people have allergies to heparin itself.
Mostly this boils down to greed, sometimes the fault of manufacturers cutting corners, but always the fault of us, the end users, willing to look the other way to save a buck at Wallyworld. Take it as a given that TANSTAAFL... So whenever you can buy a foreign-made (and I mean that to apply anywhere, not just the US-vs-China) product for less than the same thing locally made, stop and ask yourself: How they can afford to make and ship something 10k miles and still charge less than your neighbor making the same thing?