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McDonald's, Cadmium, and Thermo Electron Niton Guns
An anonymous reader writes, snipping from a story at NPR: "'How did the Consumer Products Safety Commission find out that cadmium, a toxic metal, was present on millions of Shrek drinking glasses now being recalled by McDonald's? Well, an anonymous person with access to some pretty slick testing equipment tipped off Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) about the problem. Her office confirmed that somebody using a Thermo Electron Niton XRF testing gun found a lot of cadmium, sometimes used in yellow pigments, on the surface of the glasses. The source overnighted glasses to Speier's office last week, which then turned over the test results and specimens to the CPSC. ... By law, no more than 75 parts per million of cadmium is supposed to be present in paint on kids toys. Speier's office said the amount found on the glasses was quite a bit higher than that.' Seems like the answer to a previous question about at-home science — this blogger seems to have been one of the anonymous sources."
Science, saving the world one experiment at a time.
people forget that a Thermo Electron Niton XRF testing gun now comes in every Happy Meal.
The glasses were made in China.
I'd take that bet. Because they were made in New Jersey. (ARC International, based in Millville, N.J.)
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Doesn't it seem more likely that the original discoverer worked in a different professional lab, rather than having that sort of equipment at home?
The glasses were made in China.
My wife works as an architect on small retail projects. One client of hers made a trip to China and bought a container load of material to fit out their project. So an electrician drills into a partition, hits asbestos and shuts the site down.
They lost a lot of money trying to save money on partitions. The funny thing is that the partition in question had stickers on it saying absolutely no asbestos. I guess there had to be a reason for that.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
This isn't an argument supporting the validity of "home labs." Those handheld XRFs are about $30K. I'd love to have one in MY home lab, where the most expensive equipment is a $300 distillation kit that I had to save for six months to justify.
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
Company located there does not mean product made there. Have you not been paying attention for the last forty years?
It had to be China or New Jersey
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Only the North American subsidiary is based in NJ. The company is based in France. From 2.5 seconds of fact-finding:
Arc International employs 12,200 people worldwide including 8000 in France. The group, whose head office is located in Arques, in the French Pas-de-Calais region...
But you are correct that the glasses were manufactured in NJ.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Write Jen a letter asking who the other tipster was.... Jennifer Taggart
Why? Clearly the tipster wants to be anonymous.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
A two trillion dollar budget, and still they miss this.
It used to be that public safety was the number one purpose and concern of the government. I guess poisoning children is less important now than making sure those with political power get bailed out. Children don't vote, after all. Well, except maybe in Chicago.
They probably missed it because it isn't above any established standard. The glasses were voluntarily recalled because a tougher standard may be pending. CNN has a poorly edited story about it.
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Unless you work for the company and can confirm they didn't use their Chinese manufacturing plant, it's still up in the air.
the press release
I'd suspect small production runs and urgent items are produced locally (or relatively locally). Large low cost runs with plenty of lead time, like McDonalds would want, would likely be produced in China.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
You're right. We should expect the government to test every product made for children for sale in this country...for all known toxins...before they go on sale. Of course if it did then you'd complain about the Obama nanny state stealing your money with excessive income tax.
What color is the sky in your world?
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
The glasses were made in China.
I'd take that bet. Because they were made in New Jersey. (ARC International, based in Millville, N.J.)
ahhhhh... new jersey. the china of the west.
Large low cost runs with plenty of lead time, like McDonalds would want, would likely be produced in China.
I misread that as "low cost runs with plenty of lead" - which would also likely be produced in China.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
The glasses were made in China.
I'm betting you're wrong.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100604/ap_on_he_me/us_cadmium_shrek
All the recalled jewelry was made in China. The drinking glasses are the first American-made products to be recalled.
[U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman] Wolfson said the recalled glasses have "far less cadmium" than the recalled jewelry. He would not say how much cadmium leached from the glasses in tests, only that it was "slightly above the protective level currently being developed by the agency."
Arc is a French company with a plant in New Jersey ; its origins as a glassmaker date to 1825. The company said that it has been making glasses for McDonald's for 15 years and that levels of cadmium used in the enamel baked into the glass were within current federal safety guidelines.
Biagi, Arc's vice president of North American sales, said the company was surprised and confused when it got word of the recall Thursday night.
I'm not sure why the product is being recalled based on CPSC standards that don't actually exist yet.
I'm guessing it's because a Congresswoman got involved and everyone went into cover-your-ass mode.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I sometimes use it to analyze soil samples in the field. Since you aren't necessarily shooting a homogeneous substance, you sometimes get results that don't reflect the overall concentration. To get meaningful data you have to send it to a fixed lab where they will extract it and get an analytical result that is more likely to reflect the real concentration.
Why?
Is McDonalds going to hire a hit man?
Why would the tipster contact an elected official rather than the CPSC directly? After all, they have a web page just for this process: http://www.cpsc.gov/talk.html
Was there some political motivation in going thru an elected official? Is this an insider?, a Competitor? Does it matter?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
...we end up with Thermo Electron Niton XRF testing guns being illegal to possess in the US.
Do you have ESP?
Ah well I am an Australian and my wife is Malaysian. Most of her customers are asian and believe in always getting the Best Deal (tm). My mother in law needed a tooth removed and would have paid 500 AUD for the job so she flew to Malaysia (which she was going to do anyway) and got it done for ten bucks (our money). She doesn't need all that modern sterilisation and anaesthetics. Those things were obviously invented to trick smart people like her out of their savings.
In Malaysia once I saw this nice watch in a street market. We drove the price down from 50RM to 10RM. Then the vendor took the case apart to install a battery. I realised later that he just put the 10RM movement in. We weren't really bargaining, just choosing.
I am sure the warning was in Engrish. The shipment should have been flagged in customs, but its not hard to get lucky there, especially if the paperwork from china looks okay.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Is McDonalds going to hire a hit man?
No, but the tipster wants to say employed. They no doubt have a family to feed.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
In some cases it isn't that way, though. My dad was working in Egypt for about 10 years and in at least some cases, he said the dentists there were at least equal to the best dentists he's ever had Stateside, but at a much lower price. I suppose you could take that to mean he's had terrible dentists over here, but in his experience they were often American trained and seemed to do a good job. Though there were some exceptions, the same as you'd have here (you find a good one, you keep going back, and if not you never go back again).
What color is the sky in your world?
Red white or blue depending on what the chemical manufacturing plant next to my house is making.
So what do we do instead? What are the systems in place to prevent... oh none. OK. So surely there is a system in place to punish... oh, no? OK, so we leave it to the courts? OH, the CEO and officers in the company can't be held liable in any way what so ever? So then what stops them from using a profit motive to justify poisoning people? Nothing. Well alright then, lets go ahead and just move along, nothing to see here.
So what do we do instead?
We have laws that specify tolerance levels, sample occasionally, and slap them silly if they get caught - hopefully hard enough that the overwhelming majority will feel it's not worth the risk.
But you are correct that the glasses were manufactured in NJ.
Just goes to show that the wonders of unregulated cutthroat profit-chasing capitalism are the same, whether in China or in US. It's just that it's easier to buy oneself out of regulation in China due to higher corruption. But there's no lack of desire to do the same on part of US companies...
You're right. We should expect the government to test every product made for children for sale in this country.
Yes, absolutely, and I say this as a leftie who considers Obama to be a populist corporate shill. The whole point of giving the government enough powers to run a social welfare state is so that it deals with problems like this.
for all known toxins.
We're not talking about some rare and exotic poison here, but rather some very basic stuff. It's not the first time it happens, either.
So, yeah, someone in the govt clearly didn't do their job while happily wasting taxpayers' money, and should be called out for that.
We don't know where all the components come from though. Perhaps the sand/whatever itself was contaminated, or one of the other additives. Or someone was just a dumbass and put cadmium in it for some reason.
How far down the rabbit hole do you go though? That's the harder question to answer.
T1 supplier: it's raw material, use it for whatever.
T2 supplier: it's been processed somewhat. don't use it for foodstuffs etc.
T3 supplier: here's this stuff we found cheap.
T4 supplier: here's this stuff mixed with other stuff we found sorta cheap.
T5 supplier: here's this glass-making stuff.
Cup-maker: wtf, cadmium?
-or-
Cup-maker: herp-derp lets toss some cadmium in there
Sure. the blame may be at the end of the chain, but it might not either. It could be anywhere along the line. Somewhere, someone made a mistake... but was it an honest one?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Our children can't repel cadmium of that magnitude!
feeding them shit for food and turning them into future fatasses
Our food is only 5% shit by weight, and it takes more than just food to turn them into greasy, overweight nerds - specifically, you need WOW and a good internet connection.
a stupid clown and a dinky playground
Yeah? Let's see your clown and playground! From what your girlfriend says, you're the clown, and calling your "playground" dinky would be a compliment.
"i'm just big boned" or "its genetic"
Hey, your Mom liked my big bone, and that kind of thing is genetic. Sorry the "enhancement" ads lied to you, little anonymous coward.
- McDonalds
OK, I actually read some of the linked articles. (I know, it's crazy.)
The recall now makes a lot more sense to me.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
require the companies to test these things instead of having the government completely involved
Yes, because self-regulation works just ever-so-well. When Shrub changed the rules in Texas so that the companies voluntarily self-reported chemical spills the number of spills dropped by over 60 percent. He cited that as one of his great environmental success stories during the 2000 campaign.
when they slip up make them pay dearly.
Thirty years ago that idea might have worked, but with today's executive mobility the boss who orders tests falsified will be working for another company long before any fines are levied.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
... so she flew to Malaysia (which she was going to do anyway) and got it done for ten bucks (our money)... Those things were obviously invented to trick smart people like her out of their savings.
Trick smart people? Huh?
According to this journal entry written in 2007, the Malaysian government subsidised 98% of healthcare bills. It costed US$0.30 for an entire outpatient visit in a government clinic. I presume similar rates applied to dental treatment as well.
Oh please! It was trying to kiss the ass of the "make everything healthy!" nuts that ruined McDonald's in the first place! I'm sure many of the old timers remember when their fries were actually awesome, instead of tasting like heated cardboard. That was because they used to be dipped in sugar and fried in beef lard, not anymore! It's too unhealthy! so instead we get burgers that taste like bricks, and fries that taste like cardboard. Yum Yum!
It is FAST FOOD, it is SUPPOSED to be bad for you, okay? Want healthy go home and make a fricking salad. I swear if I ever win the lotto I'm gonna open a chain of restaurants called "McFatty's" with a slogan like "McFatty's, tell the health food nuts to kiss your ass!" and I bet it'll be a hit! It'll have nothing but big fat burgers, fried buns of course, and fries dipped in sugar and cooked in 100% beef lard! Hell I'll fry every damned thing on the menu, won't nothing be less than 1000 calories, I'll have them lined around the block! And I'll even have a smoking section just so I can piss off the anti-smokers as well!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
While is truth to your statement that unfettered capitalism can result in problems, it is certainly clear that government oversight is not the solution. From my perspective, government regulation does not guarantee anything other than a lack of innovation, an increase in price, shortages, and lots of do-nothing patronage "jobs" for the well-connected. See MMS, SEC, US Post Office, etc.
I work in a highly regulated industry (medical devices) and I can tell you based on multiple decades of experience that the effect of that regulation is largely detrimental. I have seen many products which could have been extremely beneficial be delayed or de-featured due to regulatory silliness. Further, the cost of our products are dramatically increased due to the need to provide adequate "documentation" (I am convinced they weigh it to decide when you have done enough). We are forced to maintain a regulatory department that is as big as our R&D department. Everything we do has regulatory implications. When an engineer comes up with a bright idea, the first question asked is "how long will it take and how much will it cost to get it through the FDA?" Often the answers to those questions kill the project.
BTW, did it escape your notice that this particular problem was caught by a concerned citizen, not our benevolent, nanny-state government? They were probably too busy surfing the web watching porn I suppose.
I should hasten to add, however, that government isn't always completely incompetent. I have had personal experience with one extremely efficient government agency. They are always on top of things, have the latest in equipment, and don't miss a beat. This of course would be the IRS. Based on your signature this no doubt pleases you.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
"But I wonder where the paint came from?"
It doesn't fucking matter.
If you're standing there, in the glass factory, and you've made 12 million glasses that need painted, do you even stop ask yourself if maybe the paint that you have, the stuff that was supposed to be shipped to the Dept. of Transportation for road-line painting, might not be a good choice for DRINKING glasses?
The fools that were charged with painting the glasses, regardless of where the glasses came from, were supposed to do so with drinking-glass COMPATIBLE paint. The law is quite clear on this subject, and for good reason. Its not too hard to figure out, man. Toxic Paint + Food-related product = BAD
What I would bet on is that this is simply another case of someone cutting corners/costs to pad their profits, at the expense of consumer safety.
"I swear if I ever win the lotto I'm gonna open a chain of restaurants"
like this?: http://www.heartattackgrill.com/
-- Mean People Suck
A government cannot get "unlimited funding through inflation." Our government can run budget deficits because people will keep loaning us money - i.e., buying Treasury securities. Post-WWII Germany, Zimbabwe, Argentina, and a bunch of other countries serve as good examples of why a government's budget is not helped by running the presses.
If fiat currencies suck because of inflation, representative currencies suck because of deflation. With representative currency there is by definition a fixed amount in circulation, but that does nothing to stop the never-ending rise in demand for currency. Higher demand with a fixed supply of currency causes deflation.
Deflation sucks almost as much as inflation because it hurts those who borrow money. If you owe someone $1000 and the currency appreciates, you now have to pay back $2000 in constant dollars.
You don't get rid of inflation by using a representative currency; instead, you get negative inflation. Except that you now have no mechanism for controlling inflation.
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