

12% of children's jewelry contains 10% cadmium; more dangerous than lead - Alex3917
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2010/01/10/12412656-ap.html

======
gcheong
"There’s nothing positive that you can say about this metal. It’s a poison"

Unless you're operating a nuclear reactor.

~~~
nostrademons
Yeah, that struck me too. My dad did his doctorate on cadmium; his jobs
included things like cancer research and solar cells. There're _a lot_ of uses
for heavy metal radioisotopes. Like anything else, they're tools - they can be
used for either good, evil, or indifference, depending upon who's using them.

I certainly wouldn't give it to a child to play with, but the overall tone of
this article seemed very much like plain old scaremongering. I'd believe it
more if they'd used a more neutral, scientific tone. It'd also help had I not
checked on their "CDC list of 275 most hazardous chemicals" - the only Google
result that _wasn't_ a reprint of the article was this:

<http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxpro2.html>

There are 275 toxicological profiles, but they are not ordered; I can't find
anywhere where cadmium is #7.

~~~
ilkhd2
<http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/cercla/07list.html>

~~~
nostrademons
Nifty; missed that. Again, I don't think that cadmium should be in toys, but
I'd like to point out that according to the fact sheet, shellfish and leafy
vegetables are your most likely sources of exposure. And smoking of course,
which doubles your cadmium exposure. Somehow smoking never seems to cause
quite as much of a panic as Chinese toys, despite all the _other_ known
carcinogens in cigarette smoke...

------
ars
It's disgusting how many organizations say: "But we meet safety standards."
All while giving a known carcinogen to children.

I mean, forget about the "company" for a minute - companies are made of people
- don't any of them care?

~~~
gommm
Yes reading this convinced me that as much as people criticize companies in
China, the only reason US and European companies are more careful is because
of regulation...

It's a good argument in favor of regulations and strong health agencies.

~~~
ilkhd2
It is a good reason to stop deindustrialization of USA and Canada. Europe as
far as I know produce a lot of toys themselves. At least I saw a toy truck
made in Sweden. Guess what was the truck's model ;)?

------
jacquesm
Cadmium is commonly used to make yellow, organge and red paints, beware of
stuff in those colours.

The fact that it is banned doesn't seem to mean much.

