Unsafe ToysThe majority of the world knows its 2007, so why on earth has a banned substance like lead coated toys still on the news. If you guessed it came from China you’re right.

Zhang Shuhong, a supplier for Mattel Toys in China committed suicide over the weekend while in a company warehouse. His company supplied the millions of recalled lead coated children toys worldwide.

The company who willfully known it was supplying the lead coated paint to manufacturers like Zhang and Mattel is a company called “Lee Der”. China’s government promptly revoked the company’s business license.

Lead poisoning in simpler terms inhibits the two vital processes that take place in the human body; oxygen and nervous system regulation. Let’s be clear, lead is a known poison to all humans, but it’s especially harmful to young children. Long term exposure to lead (toys, paint, candy, ect.) can cause kidney damage, severe abdominal pains, and irreversible cognitive retardation.

Chinese manufactured goods proliferate what we buy, compound that with the exponential increase in toxic goods being recalled and we have a classic economic flaw. We applaud China’s ability to produce dirt cheap goods, and yet we are surprised they have to cut dangerous corners to do it. Eventually China will stop trying to please everyone and enforce a “take-it-or-leave-it” attitude, at which point we’ll be stuck with the consequences. If China is forced to adopt standards that equal the ones in the States, then their cost of doing business would closely match our own. This author does want sweat shops deemed “crimes against humanity” and all promptly dismantled; there are far too many news stories of children being abducted and forced to work in labor camps.

The next time you buy something, instead of glancing at the price tag, take a look at its manufacturing label. The cost of doing business may be higher then you thought.

Source doc:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/business/13cnd-toy.html - nytimes

Wikipedia:

http://www.wikipedia.org/Lead#Health_effects
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephropathy
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon_colic

http://www.rpi.edu/dept/bcbp/molbiochem/MBWeb/mb2/part1/heme.htm - Rensselaer
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=134899 - American Society for Microbiology
http://service.mattel.com/us/recall/default.asp?recall_id=52430 - Mattel Recall List

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