Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:15 pm
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 6:43 pm Posts: 615 Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
Gearloose wrote:
Quote:
Does Wal-Mart truly believe that they can pay pennies a piece for toys and get the same quality as if it were made here? Really?
They don't care. Most of these products are designed to be thrown away, regardless of where they are made. If someone has children ten years old or older, defy them to show you more than a few toys the child had at Age 6. They are either in the landfill, or long-since vanished in a yard sale, for one brief spasm before that same landfill. Those cadmium tainted things, for example, are not going to be part of someone's estate or dowry. They'll be lost in the yard or down a storm drain, or otherwise thrown away...Right along with your LCD TV or monitor, when the backlight fails.
We need to rethink retail consumer consumption anyway. Do I NEED this Hello Kitty Cadmium bauble? does ANYONE? Why do they even MAKE these? They are STUPID. Why are we buying them, anyway? I have managed to live without an electric egg opener, dammit. What's wrong with people? They have no purpose in life if there is not some idiotic pointless thing to buy?
Exactly. So when the Chinese substitute cheaper (but poisonous) materials you can't blame the Chinese alone; the companies that order the stuff and demand prices that would not allow the Chinese any profit are also to blame. American companies who put profit above safety only care when they get caught selling it.
Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:19 pm
Valued Contributor
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 4:20 pm Posts: 139 Location: Australia
Gearloose wrote:
Quote:
We need to rethink retail consumer consumption anyway. Do I NEED this Hello Kitty Cadmium bauble? does ANYONE? Why do they even MAKE these? They are STUPID. Why are we buying them, anyway? I have managed to live without an electric egg opener, dammit. What's wrong with people? They have no purpose in life if there is not some idiotic pointless thing to buy?
Marketing, Advertising, general brainwashing tricks to fool people into thinking they need the latest 100mhz faster processor, 1/4" bigger screen or higher resolution sharper format.
Its why diamonds have the perception of being 'rare' clever marketing, supply and restriction.
Apparently iPhone4's are sold out here they're slowly trying to release them creating a superficial demand.
Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:29 pm
Moderator: Lapidary Arts and Tools
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Quote:
WAIT. There's an electric egg opener? Where do I get one?
It was on one of those "Operators are standing by!!! WAIT!! There's MORE!!" ads. I don't know if it runs on batteries, or one turns a crank, or WHAT. My Onboard BS Filter™ cut in and most of the data was filtered. But this is what I mean. Something idiotic with little, if any purpose, that people have to have. OK, it sounds hypocritical for a gemcutter to say that, except that the things we make endure, and can always be traded for...other things..if needed. If Society collapses, gold and valuables can always be useful, for bread or bribes. WHAT are you going to do with an egg opener? Or a Hello Kitty Poison Pendant?
Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:44 pm
I must have a self-destructive streak.... I've being trying to destroy my liver with C2H5OH for the last 50-odd years and failed miserably. I breathed Lead Oxide fumes for some three decades and failed to lose (what passes for) my mind. My dentist used to stuff my mouth with silver/mercury amalgam (I remember wiping out little balls of mercury from between cheek and gum hours later because of the metalic tast in my mouth); we also used to steal small quantities of mercury from the school chem lab and carry it home, loose, in our jacket pockets as the curiosity it is.
I could relate my early experiences with home-made explosives but I'm sure that Plod is listening and I have no intention of inviting the Inquisition and it's Rack.....
Somehow, I face my seventh decade with no more to complain of that the ubiquitous arthritis and (so I'm told) a wicked sense of humour and most parts still working prorroperly and all of them intact
Oh, and with our second order for the GO 2011 calendar in process, may I assure you that it is *not* cadmium plated. Please suck it to your heart's content. A very safe, secure (and institutionally mindless) future to you all.
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