Our family lived in a rented apartment building until I was in my early teens. There was no issue of privacy nor of many worldly possessions. We simply did not have the space nor the money to buy many toys. Talking about our family situation to the Little Weed draws blank stares and a vacant look. Did I live on the same planet as we do now? Grow up in a house from birth and you know nothing else but house living. It really is difficult for him to contemplate apartment living, nor sharing a room.

Ten boxes of “stuff”, lots of plastic bags, models, Lego, Kinex, it all adds up, which all needs to be stored. His main concern when moving back in is not clothing, which he cares little, but of storage capacity. Where will he display his Hot Wheels collection without his shelving? How can he add more storage to his room? Where to display his models and Transformers?

Freshly painted, bed reassembled, it was time for a new and clean slate. The paint needs to cure, which will take a couple of days. We cannot add his shelving to the walls until this occurs. Put out he was, though in good spirit he did not show his annoyance. More shelving will come in due course.

There is nothing better than custom woodwork. The Little Weed now expects this. Route a curved groove longitudinally into a shelf, which allows his cars to not roll off. The wheels park in the groove and they stop, as they should. This is how Hot Wheels should be displayed, from the Book of Little Weed. Unfortunately “Hot Wheels ready shelving” is not readily available at the Big Box stores. One must set up the router and do it oneself, followed by cutting to length, sanding and sealing. Yet for the Little Weed this how one stores Hot Wheels, and is part of his expectations for living.

New lighting is being considered, halogens that can point where he wants. There is no “if” but “when”.

At least he is happy with his newly painted and drywalled room. The baseboard looks pretty nice. As always, expectations are high.

McDonalds recalls Shrek glasses over fears of toxic cadmium levels

Fear not the monster Shrek, for he is not to blame. But if not Shrek then whom? The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned consumers early Friday to immediately stop using the glasses available for purchase from McDonalds, on concerns about toxic levels of cadmium. Twelve million glasses are recalled. Who is to blame? There are at least three parties involved: McDonalds, ARC International, of Millville, NJ, and presumably the Chinese factory that produced the glasses. So common is the fact that China makes most of our products and the fact that so many toxic products have been traced back to China in the past makes this a very good educated guess.

Certainly we will not knowingly poison our children by giving them drink in toxic glasses. Certainly McDonalds or supplier ARC International would not knowingly supply toxic glasses to their loyal customers. Recalls are a body blow to a business’ reputation, expensive to rectify and very bad for business. Certainly the Chinese factory would not knowingly use toxic cadmium paint on glasses, risk their own health and factory reputation? Yet somehow this situation came to pass and now has come to light. Who is at fault and how can we prevent this from happening so often?

Let’s play the blame game.

Blame McDonald’s Corporation: McDonalds is a vile and immoral company bent on extracting the maximum amount of profit out of their addicted customers. They want to cut costs at all expense to health or quality. They gouged their supplier ARC International, who eventually buckled under the intense pressure. What could ARC do but supply what the customer wanted? What could the Chinese factory do but follow the specifications of the contract and fulfill the order with toxic cadmium paint, knowing full well it poison that will be shipped.

Blame ARC International: McDonalds drive a hard but fair deal, expecting a fair price for their order. ARC took the McDonalds order, and to increase their profit margin, twisted the arm of their Chinese factory to use the cheapest paint, even though the factory knew that toxic cadmium paint can harm people. What could the Chinese factory do but fulfill the order?

Blame the Chinese Factory: McDonalds and ARC International drive a hard but fair negotiation. The Chinese factory thought that no one would know the difference and that testing of the paint would never occur. The factory has done this before and no one noticed. They substituted the toxic cadmium paint to save costs. What the difference anyway? It’s only a small change to the specifications? Cadmium has been around for such a long time and we’re still Ok?

Further investigation needs to be done. You can be sure that the blame will be passed around like a hot potato. Certainly it is clear that the world has a problem with many products made in China. It is not possible to test all products that we import. Customs cannot even spot inspect all import shipments for contraband drugs, much less test products for toxic substances. The Chinese know this and so do everyone else.

I do not have the solution to this massive problem, but for sure quality control and penalties need to be implemented. The problem is so clearly identified. There should be a huge disincentive to whichever company is at fault here, because our health depends on it. China is a relatively uneducated country with a very different culture, moral system and standard for consumer products. Their standard is by far much lower than ours, largely because it is unregulated by the Chinese government. Factories can be unscrupulous by choice or inadvertently and benignly ignorant. Either way the result is the same: dangerous products are imported from China with little chance of being caught. As someone who is fluent in Mandarin, has a minor in East Asian studies (China/Japan) and has lived in China for a couple of years, I know enough to take nothing for granted.

One of the reasons I have stopped buying inexpensive products from Walmart and Canadian Tire is that I cannot determine the risk that these products have on my family. It seems too easy for unscrupulous companies to use toxic paints and too easy for me to be deceived. If I have the choice I will not take the risk.

Maybe I am naive, but I expect my government to protect me. Is this too much to ask?

Note: Comments to various news agencies are quite funny. Many state that McDonald’s food is by far more harmful to children than the toxic cadmium paint on the glasses. One needs to shake one’s head at their wisdom. Warning: Do not eat the food.

LCD TV Wall Mount Bracket, probably Made in China. It's cheap at $21US from Amazon.

Some day I will buy a flat panel LCD TV and will need a wall mount. The wall mount will probably be made in China. I do care about the safety of the employees that make my purchases, wherever they may me. They are just like the rest of us, working to squirrel away enough cash to put their kids to school. Particularly galling are safety conditions in China’s factories. The fact of the matter is that the lives of people in a far off land are not front and centre for us. While we give the proper lip service to be socially acceptable, they work in unsafe conditions so we can buy products at a cheaper price. We should care about how the products we buy affect workers in China.

This particular LCD TV wall mount from Amazon is only an example. I don’t know if it is made in China, but while shopping for electronics goods it is hard to find products NOT made in China. I note that on most product descriptions of such wall mounts, country of origin is always missing.

This Chinese worker is stamping out tv brackets with a 5 ton press. He wears no protective equipment such as eye and ear protection. There are no safety guards protecting his hands from amputation. Does he look happy?

This factory worker in his spiffy blue overalls dutifully stamps our parts for LCD TV Wall mounts. His machine, a 5 ton press, is dangerous and loud, yet I see no personal protective equipment such as eye or ear protection. There is also no safety guard on his machine that would prevent him from amputating his hand or arm if he has a small lapse of concentration.

Would you send your son or daughter into this factory to work this machine? Not on your life, at least not in Canada. We have laws against this type of unsafe environment that protect employees. If an employee gets hurt the factory would have to compensate the employee. This worker protection makes fabricating similar products in Canada more expensive. As the price of products rises, orders diminish, as buyers move to countries like China, where they can get their product without the costs of protecting their workers.

This young worker is spray painting rods for automotive use. His personal protective equipment consists of a cotton gauze mask and gloves. The spray area is confined. This is unsafe.

This young worker looks spiffy in his black and yellow bee shirt. He does not even have overalls. He is spray painting some metal rods to be used in an automotive application. His personal protective equipment consists of a cotton gauze mask, gloves, and a baseball hat turned backwards. He works in a restricted space. Surely someone in charge of this factory would know that this is extremely unsafe.

Here in Canada we would not do this even in our private garages. We buy N95 ventilation masks to protect the fine particulate from entering into and damaging our lungs. We also use eye protection. In professional applications they spray in a negative pressure room that exchanges the air quite quickly. No such luck for this guy. I wish him a long life, as he will need it.

This young worker is grinding down metal on a lathe. No ear, eye or other protection. This is unsafe.

This young worker is grinding metal down in a lathe. He uses no ear, eye or other protection, risking both life and limb for his job. Sparks from the metal can catch fire. Lathe bits sometimes break, sending hot and sharp metal in all directions at high speed. You never know when an incident will happen, so you should protect yourself. At least he is not putting his fingers or face close to the grinding wheel. With no ear protection he should be deaf in short order.

Maybe complaining about unsafe factory conditions in China is a useless exercise. Is there nothing we can do? As consumption in the West continues to accelerate, should we not think about who is making these products and the subsequent human costs that we do not pay? Today there is no way of guaranteeing that a product was made in a safe factory. Still, I wish there was some way to know.

P.S. Here is an interesting factory tour by Alex Hofford, a HK based photographer. He talks about how this factory tried to implement safety standards but were rebuffed by employees.

And now an article on Worker safety by China Daily, Copied verbatim by People’s Daily.