Chinese Toxic Toys
I have previously warned my readers about toxic and dangerous Chinese products in a number of articles (1).(2)(3)(4)
The Chinese do not care about our health nor, it seems, do they even care about their own children - one in three toys made in China contain toxic heavy metals:
Telegraph, 8 Dec 2011,
'One third of Chinese toys contain heavy metals'
A wide range of toys and children’s products, including those sold by reputable brands, apparently contained either lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, antimony or chromium. All six heavy metals can cause permanent damage to a child’s nervous and immune systems.
...
Researchers from Greenpeace and IPEN ... bought 500 toys and children’s products in five Chinese cities in November, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
They tested them with hand-held X-ray scanners and found 163 (32.6 per cent) of the toys were tainted. The highest reading, from a green toy ring, contained more than 1,200 times the amount of lead permitted under European safety standards.
It should be noted that the majority of the toys tested are available only inside China, but some belong to American brands, specifically toy cars made by Mattel, under its Speed Machines and Hot Wheels brands which were found to contain arsenic. We recall that four years ago Mattel recalled more than 20 million toys which contained excessive levels of lead and other toxins (5).
ENDNOTES
(1):
Planck's Constant, Chinese Jewelry is Dangerous
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 United States.
(2):
Planck's Constant, Chinese Knock-offs Can Kill You
And just a few days ago, a Federal Judge sentenced a husband and wife team who owned a Los Angeles department store to three years behind bars for selling counterfeit designer jewelry containing dangerous levels of lead.
(3):
Planck's Constant, China Beats Our Meat
A lawyer whose Philadelphia clients allege in a lawsuit that faulty Chinese-made tires caused a fatal car crash last year says millions of suspect tires may have been sold in the United States, far more than initial estimates.
(4):
Planck's Constant, Americans Want Geographic labels on Food
Investigation in Panama Shows 94 People Died From Tainted Medicine.
Investigations revealed the chemical was made by a Chinese company that fraudulently passed it off as 99.5 percent pure glycerin, a sweetener commonly used in drugs, to a Spanish company. That company sold it to Panama's Medicom SA, which sold it to a government laboratory.
(5):
CNN, 14 Aug 2007,
Mattel CEO: 'Rigorous standards' after massive toy recallThe CEO of Mattel Inc. insisted Tuesday that his company has "rigorous standards" and apologized as the company was forced to recall millions of toys for the second time in two weeks.
The toys were manufactured in China.
The recall, which was announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, affects about 9.5 million toys in the United States, and 11 million in foreign countries.
It is the largest in recent months involving Chinese products, which have come under scrutiny worldwide for containing potentially dangerous high levels of chemicals and toxins.
