U.S. regulators have recalled more than 200,000 pieces of jewelry containing the metal, which can be toxic in high levels.
September 10, 2010|By Lily Kuo, Los Angeles Times
Quote:
Since U.S. legislation in 2008 all but banned lead in children's products, Chinese factories have increasingly turned to cadmium as a substitute. Like lead, cadmium added shape and weight to jewelry, and was cheap.
Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:41 pm
Gemology Online Übergoddess
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 3:16 am Posts: 3170
hi bigfish,
several months ago, i read in a book, "all about jewelry" by rose leiman goldenberg (1983), that 'green' gold can be created using cadmium. from wikikpedia on green gold, "Cadmium can be added to gold alloys in amount of up to 4% to achieve green color. The alloy of 75% gold, 23% copper, and 2% cadmium yields light green 18ct gold. The alloy of 75% gold, 15% silver, 6% copper, and 4% cadmium yields a dark green alloy. Cadmium is however toxic." http://www.ask.com/wiki/Colored_gold#Green_gold
think we would have learned the first time? here's the forum link to where walmart removed the children's jewelry that contained cadmium the first time.
Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 10:58 am
Valued Contributor
Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:44 pm Posts: 209 Location: Dallas, Texas
What's next, with wall board from reactor waste for cheap rebuilding materials. China may have cheap products, but their business ethics are totally lacking. Buy at your own risk. If you do, then you will be open to litigation from many personal injury lawyers whose clients maybe victimized? Not worth the risk to us, too many lawyers in Texas. w
Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 10:54 pm
Valued Contributor
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:18 pm Posts: 218
winstone wrote:
What's next, with wall board from reactor waste for cheap rebuilding materials. China may have cheap products, but their business ethics are totally lacking. Buy at your own risk. If you do, then you will be open to litigation from many personal injury lawyers whose clients maybe victimized? Not worth the risk to us, too many lawyers in Texas. w
The Obama regime is attempting to expand it's powers, internationally, to allow FDA inspections of foreign plants (China) that produce pharmaceuticals destined for the US. If successful in this unprecedented endeavor, in my view, they won't stop there.
Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 4:29 pm
Moderator: Lapidary Arts and Tools
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Quote:
Why they need to add cadmium or even lead?
Cadmium lowers the melting point of some alloys, so less energy is used in casting. It also can harden tin alloys.
Cadmium costs $2 a pound. It actually has negative value because it can cost a lot to dispose of it.
Lead costs $1.25 a pound.
Tin costs $13.20 a pound. Good pewters cost about $20/Lb.
So if someone is making 'Pewter' or costume Jewelry metal, there is a big incentive to use as much Lead or Cadmium as possible. Another advantage is that Cadmium can thusly be disposed of, at a profit, instead of paying for it to go to a toxic waste site. If you do not like the people you are selling it to, it's even satisfying.
Post subject: Re: Chinese substituting cadmium for lead
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:42 pm
winstone wrote:
What's next, with wall board from reactor waste for cheap rebuilding materials. China may have cheap products, but their business ethics are totally lacking.
Are you speaking from personal experience? Mine (which stretches back to 1991 and is also current) is that their culture is different (which one does well to remember and respect). But, in terms of the law, their society is more law-abiding than most and within their law and culture, the same can be said for their business ethics. It was not with the Chinese in mind that the maxim 'Caveat Emptor' was coined some very long time ago.
As students, they are awesome! In no other cultural group have I commonly encountered such a thirst for knowledge and dedication to learning. Watch out folks, the Chinese *are* coming; They are dedicated to learning, hard work and successful outcomes in a way the peoples of the Western World have largely forgotten in their search for the most money for the least risk and effort - and which most of the peoples of Africa or the old Ottoman Empire have yet to acquire.
As the 'dangers' of lead, cadmium etc., I do wonder quietly where the 'Chicken-Licken' style health and safety hysteria of the last decade or two leads, beyond the creation of artificial and prejudicial trade barriers, cost-inflation and the creation of rafts of non-jobs in govt/ngo service administering and ever-more complex rule book that no one truly comprehends and which yet has to withstand any serious cost/benefit analysis.
I grew up, as did my four kids kids, in a world where:
- Red lead paint was the standard primer for steelwork before applying the top-coat paint. - For over 20 years - and helped by my kids once they were grown enough to do the work under supervision, we melted scrap lead on the kitchen stove, burned flux on it to separate the oxide and dirt which was scooped off and flicked off the ladle into a box on the floor, We cast bullets, manually de-sprued them individually with a knife, greases and packed them in boxes of 200. No we never wore resiratory protection and found simple hand-washing sufficient. Later, these bullets would be loaded into re-formed used brass cases and the protuding heads de-greased and polished with a rag and strong fingers. - Cadmium plated steel screws and nuts and bolts were products of choice where unpainted rust resistance was desired. - Asbestos-fibre based filler was mixed with the fingers before being stuffed into holes in masonry of all sorts in the pursuit of DIY chores about the home.
*Somehow* we all seem to have survived these decades of risks so serious that the Nanny State now makes it unlawful to do these things. My family are not unique; there are many millions of others with similar tales.
No, I am not impressed. Not in the least.
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Buy at your own risk.
Yes! Please!! That's all I and others like-minded ask. Publish 'facts' if you must but leave us to make our own choices. ........
Quote:
too many lawyers in Texas.
Nah. Too many lawyers and regulators in DC and London.
What do you call 50 lawyers wearing concrete boots and under 50 foot of water??
A start ....
Last edited by Kerensky on Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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