Deadly poison found in children’s jewellery

[Nomad559]

Source: Times Online

Britain’s biggest toy store, and the high-street fashion chain Monsoon have been selling children’s jewellery imported from China containing levels of lead that can potentially cause brain damage and even kill.

Of 24 items of children’s jewellery bought in London and Birmingham, eight tested positive for high levels of lead. Six items had one or more components with more than 80% lead, compared with a recommended international safety limit of 0.06%. Among the items that had high levels of the metal were two from Hamleys in Regent Street, central London, including a £4.99 bracelet with heart shapes containing more than 93% lead, and two from Monsoon Accessorize, including a £4 pink skull and crossbones that contained more than 58% lead.

Paul Currie, trading director at Hamleys, yesterday announced an immediate investigation and the withdrawal from sale of the two products that tested positive for lead. “High levels of lead in children’s jewellery are totally unacceptable because this is a product that comes into contact with children,” he said.

Read more: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article2284276.ece

[Deja Q]

1. If multinational corporations listened to consumers and did a mass boycott of China,

what might happen?

US workers would get fired for endangering lives and profits; the companies would likely go under, now having a bad reputation! Why should any other country be held immune, in our globalized world marketplace?

[youngdem]

2. IF a successful boycott were arranged, we would pay DEARLY

We have next to no domestic manufacturing capacity anymore, and even components are not made here.

The biggest problem by far would be that China would immediately FUCK US by stopping their purchases of all of our debt, and the economy would immediately come to a screeching halt as the money supply would dry up, since our government runs largely on debt spending funded by China exploiting our short-sighted idiocy.

Whatever we do will have to be gradual, or will have to happen in the context of some larger crisis in China. Otherwise, we will be punished harshly for daring to push back against our masters.

[ohio2007]

4. We would buy Vietnamese,India and other pacific rim countries

I doubt other nations will say no to a consumer conscience buyers.

And whats China going to do, nuke us for not purchaseing products from their cancer riddled homeland ?

Many talk the talk of anti-globalization but when it comes to the call for individual participation, many prefer to just say no,
citing doom and gloom as to why it won't work without wondering; "lets find out what gets changed".

[youngdem]

18. The ruin the Chinese can do to our economy by flooding the market with dollars

or by not buying our debt any longer should not be underestimated.

The Chinese could, if so driven, cause a DEPRESSION in the US by destroying the value of the dollar, or by destroying our government's ability to function by removing its supply of debt purchase.

I don't doubt we could eventually get our plastic shit from somewhere else, but China is the ONLY country rich enough and with enough political interest to buy all of our debt.

The first thing we have to do to part ways with China is STOP DEFICIT SPENDING. The rest goes from there. If we become more disciplined financially, we won't be dependent on foreign countries buying our debt to function day to day.

After that, THEN we put into place FAIR trade agreements, demanding competitive wages and conditions in the countries with which we trade, to stop the race to the bottom that is partly responsible for the demise of the middle class here in the US.

After we have more financial discipline and have arranged a more varied supplier base, THEN we can have more leverage to demand that China revalue its currency, which is the other major player keeping us under their thumb.

Do not underestimate what power they have with the amount of debt of ours they carry. YES, they too would suffer by devaluing their debt holdings by having a fire sale, but NO WHERE NEAR how we would suffer. We have to be serious about this. We are their largest consumer, but Russia, India and the Middle East are growing very quickly.

[ohio2007]

23. nobody wants dollars. China is holding a money $ bag that shrinks in value daily

what are they really going to do, evict us from our homes? The French hold those notes.

sorry, you can speculate all you want but right now it's there move. They are frozen in assests.

[youngdem]

25. ???

We don't exist on an island.

If our currency is flooded upon the market by the Chinese, EVERYTHING we buy will become MUCH, MUCH more expensive, since most of what we consume is from overseas.

When that happens, people will shop less because they can afford less, and that will ripple through the economy, causing more job losses, causing less consumption, causing more job losses, and on and on. Add to that the fact that the dollar will buy MUCH less, and considering that many Americans are BARELY making it, and the threat is very real, whether your understanding of the issue reveals that to you or not.

[AndyTiedye]

16. This was from the UK. Last One was from New Zealand. This is Worldwide

Yes, China will likely stop buying our debt. They won't be buying much of anything if nobody wants to buy their stuff.
It isn't a question of the US punishing China or China punishing the US.
They're selling poisonous crap to everybody. They are also killing themselves with it.
People have started to notice.

It isn't exactly a boycott when people stop buying your stuff because it was recalled for being potentially deadly, or because we are afraid it might be.

[krispos42]

5. We have to ween ourselves off of China immediately.

Boost tariffs every year until things get back under control. Until manufacturing shifts back to the US.

The only thing I really want to see coming here from China is china and fireworks!

I mean, think about it... what good is cutting our own emmissions if the same emmissions are going into the air anyway in China?

Not to mention the costs of actually hauling all that shit from China to here. How much fuel does that cost per ton?

[kath]

14. The mind boggles at the energy costs/pollution involved in shipping all that crap halfway around the

world. Horrible.

[krispos42]

21. And it gets worse...

In a column a couple of months ago, George Will noted that it took all this energy to mine the nickel ore in Canada, ship it to Scotland to be refined into the operating fluid for nickel-metal-hydride batteries, then shipped again to China to be made into batteries for Toyota Priuses. And I wanted to reach into the newspaper, grab him by the throat, and scream "And which party decided it was the greatest thing in the world to MOVE all of our factories overseas in the first place? Who advocates globalization and free trade, lackwit?!?!?!?!?"

[bread_and_roses]

35. Er...the answer to "who" would include a lot of Democrats

including our favorite son, the Big Dog himself, and the Senator from NY running for President.

[ohio2007]

3. China has a real QA issue, they want to kill their future consumers

and the market may reward other nations with demanding products "not made in China"

[burrowowl]

30. Plus kill their own workers

since making these tems also exposes them to high levels of lead and god knows what else.
Many women were sickened and dial from painting radium on instrument dials to make them glow, during WWII by licking their brushes, to make a fine point.

[blondie58]

6. oh, no- not again

every day, a new item comes out that is dangerous or poisonous. We need to stop this. NOW.

[tomreedtoon]

7. I always thought jewelry made women stupid...

...now we have scientific reasons why. It started when they were children.

I find it funny that the government insisted that lead figurines - the ones used in role playing games to represent adventurers and monsters - were replaced by pewter at higher cost, and at great insistence by the government. And now we learn that stuff sold to younger children, kids who don't even use these as decorative figures, contain enough lead to cause brain damage. Way to go, EPA.

[acmavm]

10. So it was jewelry that makes women stupid? What did it to you?

[ohio2007]

11. Maybe it was only a trinket of distraction, so she won't wise up to sumpin ?

nt

[bitchkitty]

12. Sssssnap! LMAO! n/t

[tomreedtoon]

34. Trying to please women by buying them jewelry.

It took me years to realize there is no way to please a woman, and so why bother trying? It was probably male chauvinism on my part anyway. After years of trying to put them on a pedestal, and failing, I got smart and started kicking the pedestals out from under them.

Satisfactory answer?

[tabasco]

8. Erin Burnett from CNBC better warn them !

If they demand poison out of their toys the price might go up!!

[Nomad559]

9. China Is Our Greatest Friend - Erin Burnett

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x47656

:)

[tanyev]

28. I just hate paying more for the food without poison!

[mzmolly]

13. Pewter of any kind can contain lead, as does crystal. Though products containing lead should not

be sold to children. A 4 year old child in Minnesota died a couple years ago from a Nike pendant, he swallowed it and the lead content killed him. :(

[NYC]

22. Recommended.

Your story about the 4 year old who died from swallowing a lead pendant should convince everyone that imports from China can be deadly. It is not worth the risk.

[Gregorian]

15. Never buy anything from HONEST SHENZEN TRADING PRISON CHEMICAL COMPANY LTD

I really don't get this. They are not enforcing, or can't enforce standards.

And what the hell is going on with our supposedly modern societies? We aren't even checking to see if the crap that comes into our countries is tolerable for use? Oh yeah, we're too busy busting pot smokers.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Is anybody else getting the feeling that all of this isn't an accident?

[Seabiscuit]

19. Well, my family is personally boycotting all things made in China.

If millions more did the same it might cause our transglobal corporations to think twice about what they've been doing exporting our manufacturing jobs over there.

[Cookie wookie]

33. I'm trying to figure out how to do that...

Just sent out a batch of emails to companies this a.m. with more to go -- do any of the ingredients come from China, is any of the production or processing done in China: I started with toothpaste, deodorant, teas. Need to follow with cosmetics, vitamins, hair spray, soaps, rice, medicines, household cleaning products, clothing, shoes, costume jewlery.

The thought of going to the woods to find some bark to clean my teeth and moss for underarms isn't all that appealing...

Even organic products -- are they safe? What about wheat gluten added to organic baking mixes -- does it come from China?

We're f---ed.

[djp2]

20. Big Govt. oversight?

We don't need no stinking Big Government Oversight, do we??

Send this to your repug friends.

[uppityperson]

36. What do you mean?

[celestia671]

24. I just did a random count in the room I'm in..

and found that just about everything in here was made in China, even my mouse! When I think about the jobs that could be brought to our country if more factories would start making good here again, it just boggles the mind.

[sarcasmo]

29. A couple links for you. Clothing made in the States.

http://store.americanapparel.net/men.html

http://www.verizonsupersite.com/islandslippercom/islandprooriginals/

[DBoon]

26. We are back to the Victorian age with product safety

You get rid of 20th century regulations, you end up with 19th century nightmares.

When arsenic and lead compounds were used to color candy, and opium was fed to infants as part of many patent medicines.

"Scheele's Green (a copper arsenate) has even been recorded in the 19th century as a coloring agent in sweets. "

http://www.bluewedges.org/uploads/File/Lindsay%20Swinden%20expert%20witness%20statement.pdf

[DBoon]

27. Here is a better link to the topic

In 1820, the English chemist Frederick Accum not only described in great detail the harmful effects of foods containing poisonous colorants, but also provided names and addresses of merchants selling these products. The following example from Accum’s work shows the extent of food adulteration in England during the first half of the 19th century:

“Vegetable substances, preserved in a state called pickles, whose sale frequently depends greatly upon a fine lively green color, are sometimes intentionally colored by means of copper. A young lady amused herself by eating pickles impregnated with copper. She soon complained of a pain in the stomach. In nine days after eating the pickle, death relieved her of her suffering.”

Accum prophetically warned against using toxic colorants and provided a list of foods most commonly adulterated with these poisons. For example, candy was almost always contaminated with one or more of the following: red sulfuret (mercury(II)sulfide, HgS), verdigris (copper(II) acetate, Cu(C2H3O2)2), blue vitriol (copper(II)sulfate, CuSO4), sugar of lead (lead(II)acetate, Pb(C2H3O2)2), white lead (lead(II)carbonate, PbCO3) and
Scheele’s green (copper(II) arsenite, Cu(AsO3)2).

In spite of Accum’s plea, Parliament made no laws to regulate food preparation. In 1850, Dr. Arthur Hill Hassall wrote the following bleak account of the plight of the British people:

“From morning to night (the Englishman) is the subject of perpetual fraud ... he drinks chicory and beans in his coffee, water in his milk, and organic matter of the vilest kinds... in the water itself. He is unsuspicious that he is eating lard in his butter, alum in his bread, disgusting parasites, flour and gypsum in his sugar, meal in his mustard, turmeric in his ginger, sulfuric acid in his vinegar, lead in his cayenne, copper in his pickles ... and many mineral poisons in bonbons and confectionery, or that his potted meats may be made of horseflesh, his tea of leaves revamped, his cigar falsified, and his cocoa adulterated with meal and flour.”

The human toxicity of these colors was well known at the time, making their presence in food even less excusable. Hassall voiced a particularly strong concern that poisonous candy was consumed primarily by children. Hassall describes a candy bird cake decoration as follows:

“The pigments employed for colouring the pigeon are light yellow for the beak, red for the eyes, and orange-yellow for the base or stand. The yellow color consists of the light kind of chromate of lead or pale chrome; for the eyes, bisulfuret of mercury, or vermilion, and for the stand, the deeper variety of chromate of lead or orange chrome.”

Likewise, in the United States, there appears to have been little organized opposition to the adulteration of foods and beverages until after the Civil War. Until this time in the United States, it was virtually impossible to find any food, drink, or medicine that had escaped extensive contamination. For example, cod liver oil was adulterated, almost to substitution, with train oil mixed with iodine. Yellow tinged milk, colored with lead(II)chromate (PbCrO4), was so common that people refused to purchase white milk, thinking that the latter had been doctored. In 1856, the English chemist, William Perkin (1838–1907) prepared the first synthetic organic dye, “aniline purple” or “mauve”. Within a few years, a variety of these potentially safer organic dyes began to replace mineral pigments as food colorants. However, in the United States, toxic colored metal salts of arsenic, mercury, lead, chromium, and copper continued to be used as food colorants until the beginning of the 20th century. In the United States, it was common to color pickles and canned vegetables with copper sulfate until about 1905.


From http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_ent.html?id=c373e9ffe3859dc28f6a17245d830100 , the American Chemical Society, a notorious member of the "liberal media"

[NYC]

31. You may be interested in a book I'm reading:

Wylie, Harvey W.

The History of a Crime Against The Food Law: The Amazing Story of the National Food and Drugs Law Intended To Protect The Health Of The People; Perverted to Protect Adulteration of Foods.

Washington, D.C., Harvey W. Wiley, 1929.

Dr. Wylie recounts his attempt to enforce a pure food law, and how the law's enforcement and later the law itself was perverted by those interested in profiting personally by adulterating and degrading the nation's food supply.

Here we have reproduced the photolithographic version published by the very admirable Lee Foundation For Nutritional Research of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1955. PUBLIC DOMAIN.


http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030305wylie/030305toc.html

I've just started reading, but already some of the testimony is in favor of adulterants in food because they are such "small" amounts.

As old as this book is, it pertains to today.

[OhioChick]

32. In Other News Regarding China....

Toys 'R' Us stops sales of China-made bibs
19 Aug, 2007, 0217 hrs IST, REUTERS

NEW YORK: Retailer Toys ‘R’ Us said on Friday it removed all Hamco Inc.’s vinyl baby bibs, which were made in China, from its shelves as a precaution after an independent tester found samples of bibs containing excessive amounts of lead.

Toys ‘R’ Us said in a statement that the bibs were marketed under the Koala Baby, Especially for Baby and Disney Baby labels.

Media reports earlier in the week said the inexpensive bibs were made in China and imported for Toys R Us by Hamco Baby Products.

Toys ‘R’ Us and Crown Crafts Inc, which owns Hamco, could not be reached for comment.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Toys_R_Us_will_shut_China-made_bibs/articleshow/2291695.cms