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."

Comments

REGULATORS!

[LostCluster]

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.

Re:REGULATORS!

[Dog-Cow]

I have no numbers on the amount of goods shipped into the US on a daily basis, but I suspect that it would take a large percentage of the population to check it all in a timely manner.

It would be better to simply fine Walmart several hundred billion dollars for poisoning US citizens. Walmart forces suppliers to lower prices, and this is exactly what we get. It is Walmart's fault.

Re:REGULATORS!

[anagama]

Oh that'd work real well. Maybe as a big thank you to the government Walmart would decide to shut down and put more than a million people out of work.

That retail wouldn't go away and those workers would then likely get better paying jobs at the local businesses WM originally put out of business, which then spring back up. It really annoys me that people are too cheap to pay an extra percent or two to support local businesses where not only the workers spend their earnings in the local community, but the owners do as well. Shopping at WM simply supports the concentration of retail profit into the hands of fewer and fewer people, impoverishing far more people than it ever helps. It gets very disgusting when state and local governments lend a hand to the WalMarts of the world by offering them tax breaks, which just helps accelerate destruction of the local economy and speeds the transit of wealth out of the community -- all so people can save a dime on a box of eggs. Sick.

Re:REGULATORS!

[phantomfive]

The situation with China is not as bad......China has less than a trillion dollars in US treasury bonds, so even if they dumped them all on the market, it would have a smaller inflationary effect than what the Fed has done in the last year.

The US produces more food than it consumes, so we would be ok on the essentials, although we might have trouble getting Mexican mangos for a while. Furthermore, because most other world currencies depend somewhat on the dollar, any such inflation would likely spread throughout the world monetary system.

I'm not trying to say we shouldn't close the deficit, of course we should, but let's be rational about it. I'm tired of oversensationalized disaster scenarios.

I can think of something positive...

[Anonymous Coward]

...combine it with nickel and you've got yourself a battery. Now that's positive... and negative.

When life gives you lemons

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Lemons are an interesting fruit. They are incredibly sour to the point of being inedible as-is, this makes it evolutionarily disadvantaged since more tasty fruits would seemingly have an advantage. However, here we are with literally millions of lemon trees. What can we do with these sour fruits? Lemonade!

So when life hands you cadmium, make Ni-Cad batteries!

How come...

[mysidia]

Barred from using lead ... Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium

They're not barred from using Cadmium? But they're barred from using Lead?

Wouldn't it make more sense to regulate the safety of products using the more harmful material first?

We shouldn't need a 'law' for each material... we should get one law about safety requirements for harmful materials, warning labels, and access by children.

For example, products for use by children must not contain amounts of cadmium or lead that are not protected by a safety measure.

Of course their toy's batteries might contain cadmium or lead, so it shouldn't be banned, but safety requirements at least as strict (such as shielding/containing harmful materials) should be applied to Cadmium as to lead, etc, etc.

And this is why not to buy Chinese....

[Ritchie70]

This sort of shit is why you don't want to buy Chinese products if you can help, and never, ever, buy Chinese food products.

When buying gifts for very young children (preschool age and down) I do my best to buy toys made in Europe or the US.

I've accepted that I can't avoid Chinese merchandise in general, but I try to be selective - not for people who don't know not to eat their stuff, and not for things I plan to eat.

I read somewhere that Chinese industry is currently at a safety level - both for their workers and their products - roughly comparable to Victorian England or America. That isn't a world I want to live in if I can avoid it.

Rudolph...

[girlintraining]

...substituting the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium

Everybody knows a proper Rudolph is made from tritium, not cadmium. Damn imitation radioactive children's toys... buy american: We use 100% Tritium in our glow in the dark toys!

Re:Scaremongering

[Nemyst]

And you've never seen a little child putting stuff into his/her mouth and happily chewing?

Re:Fair and balanced.

[McFortner]

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....

To Stop This

[randallman]

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.

TARIFFS!

[QuoteMstr]

The trade may be free, but it's sure as hell not fair:

1. China has no environmental or labor standards. It's not fair to expect our domestic industries to compete against theirs when we have to clean up after ourselves. Here, we have elections. There, if you complain about the local river turning green and your kids' hair falling out, you get disappeared.
2. China has been manipulating its currency, the renminbi, to subsidize its exports and cost us millions of jobs.
3. Third, the unmitigated, unregulated, and unabashed greed exhibited by Chinese manufacturers and their American partners has not only poisoned our economy with a cavalcade of cheap crap, but put the lives and well-being of our pets, our children, and ourselves in danger.

It's time to place heavy tariffs on Chinese imports until they play by the same rules as the rest of the civilized world. We shouldn't do business with Dickenonsian nightmare states.