We have to give it to the Chinese, they are ingenious: "Barred from using lead in children's jewelry because of its toxicity, some Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium in sparkling charm bracelets and shiny pendants."
Yes, and the makers should be taken to the town square and shot in the presence of all the citizens. And it's not ingenious - it's disingenuous.
Maybe instead of making millions you should have spent more time in grammar school. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! 1. characterized by cleverness or originality of invention or construction: an ingenious machine. 2. cleverly inventive or resourceful: an ingenious press agent. After all they are not licking it, American children are....
disingenuous - Not straightforward or candid. In other words, hiding something. And where are YOUR millions, eh? :shrug:
Neither this nor the other thread was about making millions... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Another reason to balance the budget. Right now, we're China's bitch. We can't bitch too much about all the poison crap they send us when we're in hock up to our armpits to them.
Dearest madanthonywayne: Wouldst thou elucidate on thy plans to loose these bonds that tie us to China? Not here in Chemistry forum, though! Remember when that lady chastised people on TV for complaining about leaded paint? How we shouldn't be complaining because, to paraphrase "China is our biggest economic ally and trade partner so we should be careful about pointing our fingers at them"??? What a load of BS! I hope that lady suffers one of those "heavy flow" days for her brazen stupidity! BUT about the chemistry: What is the purpose of cadmium in paint? I know lead used to have a place for stabilizing the chemistry or something, not exactly sure what it did. Why cadmium? Too cheap to do it safely? Too bent on poisoning people?
I would say cost. probably this is the cheapest solution, otherwise they would use something cheaper and less dangerous...
I'm not certain about the reason for lead or cadmium in paint. I'd heard that lead was used as an anti-fungal agent (it keeps stuff from growing in the paint so you don't have a fungal scum on the top?). If so, I suspect cadmium is also added as a poison. I've heard that Mercury was substituted in the US paints when Lead was removed, but I'm not certain on this either. This needs to be researched, I suspect.
Back in the eighties, I recall a TV news item about a toddler in the USA who fell ill after her parents painted her room. Turns out the paint they used was exterior house paint, and it contained mercury.It was not intended for interior use. The little girl got sick from the fumes. Now this is anecdotal, and it was a long time ago, but I still wouldn't use exterior paint indoors for that reason.
Yes, it was in the 80s (barely - 1989) and it wasn't exterior paint at all - rather, it was an interior type. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/16/1096
Dont put anything in your mouth from China. I dont understand why Chinese food is so unhealthy compared to other foods either.
What almost always happens in these situations is that some middle manager in the company/factory/whatever substituted a cheaper, less safe material for whatever they were supposed to use and pocketed the price difference. China seems to have sort of a weird cultural history of that kind of behavior, at least all the way back to the early 1900s.
Lead was used as white pigment in paint. It also makes it more durable. Titanium oxide is used now for the white pigment.
Cadmium is used as a paint pigment. Cadmium Sulfide is used for Yellow. Cadmium Selenide is used for red. They will have been used for two reasons. The first being that China is the worlds top producer of Cadmium. The second being that because of how potent/strong the colours are, you need to use very little, and so they represent a cheap pigment.
Quite correct. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Most people nowadays aren't even aware of white lead. And it also acted as an anti-fungal agent which further protected the wood beneath from mold and mildew.
Why is Cadmium so good at making bright colours? Presumably something about its electron arrangement.
