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Rudolph the Cadmium-Nosed Reindeer
theodp writes "Barred from using lead in children's jewelry because of its toxicity, some Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium in sparkling charm bracelets and shiny pendants being sold throughout the US, an AP investigation shows. Charms from 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' bracelets were measured at between 82 and 91 percent cadmium, and leached so much cadmium that they would have to be specially handled and disposed of under US environmental law if they were waste from manufacturing. Cadmium, a known carcinogen, can hinder brain development in the very young. 'There's nothing positive that you can say about this metal. It's a poison,' said the CDC's Bruce Fowler. On the CDC's priority list of 275 most hazardous substances in the environment, cadmium ranks No. 7. Jewelry industry veterans in China say cadmium has been used in domestic products there for years. Hey, at least it doesn't metabolize into GHB when the little tykes ingest it."
Let's put these things together.... from TFA:
Cadmium is a known carcinogen. Like lead, it can hinder brain development in the very young, according to recent research.
and...
Some of the most troubling test results were for bracelet charms sold at Walmart, at the jewelry chain Claire's and at a dollar store.
So we've got a substance dangerous to kids in just the kind of jewelry they can afford on their allowance.
This stuff is absolutely something that needs regulation to control it. Sometimes "letting the market decide" just rolls off the bowling lane and into the gutter. No, knocking down pins in somebody else's lane doesn't count. That's why they put the gutter in.
The Japanese have experience with environmental pollution from cadmium mining.
They call the results itai-itai disease, which is roughly translated into ouch-ouch. Few victims actually die from the disease, they typically commit suicide to get relief from the pain it causes.
This is the problem with our Trade Agreements. We enforce IP laws to no end, but other issues? Workers rights and safety issues never seem to come up.
The Libertarian view does not work here. Sure, we can sue Walmart for importing these toys. We can sue the maker, somehow. The problem is that if one kid dies or becomes permanently sick because of these toys, it's too late. We need regulation. We need trade agreements that not only enforce IP, but make sure that the companies are not using methods or materials banned in the US.
The same applies to any company operating in the US. Self regulation only goes so far. We had the Sego mine disaster in 2006. Who was the head of US mine safety? A mine owner. So in Europe when the same thing happened, the workers had a bunker with food, water and air to retreat too. To save money, the US did not have any regulations requiring bunkers. The workers here died.
And we know the Chinese don't give a damn about poisoning their backyard or themselves.
We'll all pay for this unforgivable, mindless destruction eventually.
you had me at #!
Wow, you sound like a shill saying that. Get real, the Chinese Communist Central Committee doesn't care as long as they can get our money and get away with it. As soon as we find out, some poor middle management schmuck gets put up against the wall and shot. Remember, Lenin said "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." We sure are making the job easy for them....
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
And Americans will have become overly weakened because we will use medicine to keep people barely alive who have been poisoned by heavy metals.....
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Whatever company outsources the labor or imports/markets the dangerous merchandise should be held accountable. So if Barbie comes back with lead paint, Mattel should pay the price.
It's very effective corrosion resistance plating as well. Even better when you put on a chromate conversion coating after (also toxic).
It's not used much in consumer goods though, mostly military stuff (chrome conversion can conveniently turn it olive-drab, too.)
I believe the main problem with Cd is - it's very similar to Zn. And due to this similarity, your body absorbs it, as zinc, but you are unable to excrete it, and get something like a horrible zinc deficiency? I'm not entirely certain, but I seem to recall something like that.
Coincidentally, Cd and hex-chrome as both banned in the EU, under RoHS, - Well It would be if these were electronics.
Sent from my PDP-11
I should add - after years, plain cadmium plating oxidizes, and turns to a sort of butternut yellow coloured powder. I think this is when it is most dangerous, because it is very easy to inhale or ingest.
I see it on occasion on the metalwork of electronic equipment from the 50's and 60's.
Sent from my PDP-11
Most thin film solar cells are based on cadmium telluride. Cadmium is one of the rarer metals so making children's bracelets out of it seems like a waste as well.
People like you voted for Nader and inflicted Bush the Younger on yourselves, our country, and the world.
If Al Gore and John Kerry can't beat an ape by a significant margin with the rank and file democrat votes then they didn't deserve the job. It's pretty pathetic to blame the swing voters and the far left for the problems of the world. 59M people voted for Kerry out of 215M possible voters. There were 92M voters who really did throw their vote away by not even showing up. Why don't you attack them instead of the roughly 1.1M who voted outside of the two main parties. Barely half a million for Nader.
I think I'll blame the Bush catastrophe on the 59M democrats for not picking someone better in their primaries, at least that sort of unreasonableness has some logic to it.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
And the USA, the would leaders in Chinese hatemongering, could take some responsibility. I'm getting really fed up with the way the USA wants everything cheap and cheerful without a thought for anyone else. The hate is borderline racism - call them Chinks and sprinkle some sugar on the top.
I work for a German company, in the UK. Our partners are mainly Swiss and French. When we commission the Chinese to work for us, we help them. We fly our people over, we explain why we wont let them machine our metal in an asbestos covered factory, we perform QA on every 200th part, we show them COSHH sheets, we help. The Chinese are more than happy to follow our safety procedures. They honestly like the help we give them. And they obviously love the work and the money and we like the quality produce they produce for us.
Sloppy work is all your fault. Just saying.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
If that country won't take responsibility for the poisons they export to us, why are we dealing with them?
Because it's cheap.
Citation needed.
I know cadmium is very commonly used in plastics because of the bright and weather resistant colors that can be made with it, not because it's cheap.
You're not using much of any plating metal on cheap charms, so the cost of the material is probably not as significant as the cost of plating it on. You want a metal that's easy to plate, shiny and corrosion resistant, so cadmium fits the bill (in retrospect, shoulda put "non-toxic" in there). What other options might they have used? Chrome might be less toxic, but plating generates hazardous wastes. Perhaps the environment people where the shop is located are more diligent (or more present) than the toy safety people. Silver is benign, but it tarnishes. Zinc doesn't tarnish, but is less shiny. Gold, rhodium, palladium are pricey enough to be getting into significant material cost. The price of indium has gone up since the Chinese stopped separating it from zinc ore. Tin would probably work. Dipping it in mercury would make it nice and shiny, but there's the poisonous thing.
So how do you pick? I guess you'd find whatever was cheap enough from a material standpoint and compatible with your expertise and equipment. If anyone complains, well, you're not a toxicologist, are you?
I am not a crackpot.
Which is why you should always buy American!
Oh wait...we don't make anything anymore.
The US has a manufacturing sector that produces over $2.6 Trillion annually - larger than any other country on earth including China and larger than the GDP of all but 5 countries. Total imports into the US are just over $2.1 Trillion (16% of those are from China) while US exports are around $1.3 Trillion. (only China and Germany export more)
But we don't make anything anymore... Right... Never let the facts stand in the way of a good sound bite.
Government regulation works, when we want it to work. The problem is that since the 80s we had people in charge of government that hate government. Look at the last administration. We had a horse trader in charge of FIMA. We had a mine owner in charge of mine safety. Today we have a big banker in charge of policing the banks.
If you are able to source all of your own food, and products you buy, good for you. The rest of have to have some group that checks on companies and products to make sure they are following the rules.