Lab Finds Toxic Metals In Wal-Mart Pet Toys

[douglas9]

Source: KXAN.com TV Austin

Harry, a 3-year-old Jack Russell terrier, loves to explore ... so much so that he has forgotten all about his chew toys, at least for now.

ConsumerAffairs.com reported that a Texas lab found elevated levels of lead, chromium and cadmium in two Chinese-made pet toys sold at Wal-Mart. The site added that two veterinarians said the levels of toxic metals found in the toys do not pose a health risk to dogs or cats. The dog toy, a latex green monster, tested positive for high levels of lead and the carcinogen chromium. The other toy, a cloth catnip trinket, also tested positive for "a tremendous amount" of cadmium.

"The bottom line is if you don't have to give your pets toys, don't, especially as we're going through this scare right now," said Dr. Allison Healy of Brykerwood Veterinary Clinic. "If you do give them a toy, give them something indestructible, they can't swallow, ingest or have the potential for having lead inside of it."

Healy advised that if your pet swallows toxic metals, pet owners will notice warning signs of vomiting and diarrhea.

Read more: http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=7417023&nav=0s3d...

[Systematic Chaos]

1. And we gave these pricks 97% of our manufacturing base for THIS?

And just to clarify, by "pricks" I do NOT mean every single person living in China. I'm talking about the fucksticks who let this stuff happen in the name of greed.

Man they're really starting to piss me off.

[Frank Cannon]

6. Greed? I think they're actively trying to kill us all.

Now, there's a way to get rid of toxic waste: fashion it into products and sell it to people in another country.

I keep waiting to hear about the teething rings crafted out of plutonium.

[Shallah Kali]

16. The leaders in China are only doing to us what we did to them

and they are doing to their own people

for example:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/18/asia/waste.php?W...

This doesn't justify it or excuse it. It just shows how the circle goes round and around when the powers that be don't give a damn about anyone but themselves.

[DainBramaged]

22. AHEM

Did anyone one here really think that the shit that dribbles out of the bung hole that is China would

EVER

,

EVER

,

EVER

match American quality??? You gots what you paid for , shit.

Lets see if America will step up to the plate and PAY for quality when we start manufacturing here AGAIN because we are a third world country with the cheapest money among developed countries.


Will you pay more now for American quality and security for your children???????

[lligrd]

2. Damn, My Dog Loves Toys

First I have to worry about pet food, then kid's toys and now pet toys! I wonder what else we are being poisoned with thanks to the New World Order?

[Systematic Chaos]

3. Don't look now, but doesn't China product a LOT of our pharmaceuticals?

[China_cat]

4. For Wal-Mart's $4 program.

[douglas9]

7. Aside from the conterfeit drugs?

The Food and Drug Administration can't adequately inspect foreign drug manufacturers because its database is so outmoded it doesn't even know how many foreign firms are shipping drugs to the United States, a government watchdog group and former FDA officials told Congress on Thursday.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-01-fda-impo...

[Shallah Kali]

15. & most of our vitamins including 90% of Vitamin C

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/20037...

[MADem]

5. Time for "old fashioned" toys--those old socks, braided together,

the TENNIS BALL, the old towel, rolled up, with rope around it, the (this is from the dark ages) STICK that one would throw--get it Fido, get it!! Bring it here, GOOD boy!

The squeaky shit is fun, but damn--it ain't safe. Guess we'll have to do the sound effects ourselves!

[tom_paine]

8. Unfortunately, the Chinese are molding their waste into tennis balls, towels, and rope, too

The Bushies and the Chicoms probbaly found out that increased toxins in citizens' bloodstream equal more docility and less ability to reason and critically think.

This is a windfall benfit for them, Totalitarian Murderers and Criminals that they are.

No, I am suspecting a conspiracy, just a bunch of people who know what good marketing is and that people who's brains and bodies are filled with toxin cannot think as well as those who do not have hig levels of txins inside them.

A "hub-and-spoke conspiracy" if you will. No one, Chicom or Bushie, needs orders to know what needs to e done.

For Bushies: A thorough destruction of the mechanism that screen products for safety and the inspectors to enforce the laws...all honest inspectors must be pushed outr and replaced with Loyal Nazis, errr, Bushies.

For Chicoms: They can now give us the exact same shit they give their own people, for we and they are merely slaves of Totalitarian Monstes with no rights and no ability to protest our slow murder by toxins.

[CountAllVotes]

9. you can add hats to your list

I saw one for sale and it was made in China of "recycled paper products, etc." whatever that meant. I don't want a hat made out of recycled paper products.

[Shallah Kali]

14. That's better than USED Condoms made into hair bands!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071113/hl_afp/chinahealth...

Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China, threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent, state media reported Tuesday.

snip

Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses, it said.

"People could be infected with AIDS, (genital) warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while waving their hair into plaits or buns," the paper quoted a local dermatologist who gave only his surname, Dong, as saying.

A bag of ten of the recycled bands sells for just 25 fen (three cents), much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity, the paper said.

[CountAllVotes]

17. OMG!!!

[MetaTrope]

20. Now, who exactly goes picking through the garbage looking for condoms to recycle?

Or are there special condom-recycling bins out on the street corners?

[Shallah Kali]

21. Trash picking pays better than many jobs if you don't get sick from the toxic waste & bulldozers

Shanghai Journal
Dump Trash, Add Scavengers, Mix and Get a Big Mess
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/03/world/asia/03garbage....

Were it not for dangers of the job, like being crushed by a bulldozer, inhaling noxious gases while wading knee-deep in fetid refuse or being beaten by warring gangs of scrap pickers for the mere prize of an unbroken bottle, it might even be considered a good job.

"We worked really hard as laborers before, doing 12- to-15-hour days for a mere few hundred yuan," about $35, Mr. Song said. "You have to work even if you are sick or tired. Here we are working for ourselves, and there is a lot more freedom — four to five hours a day, plus we can earn a lot more."

snip

Finally, he got to the meat of the problem: the scavengers who descend each day upon his dump like freebooters on a diamond mine. "As soon as you tip the truck there will be 40 or 50 people running all about the machines — quite big machines," he said. "I don't have the statistics, but quite a few people have been crushed like this."

snip

Zuo Xilian, another garbage picker, said he was working his way through college while supporting a 60-year-old father in fragile health. "Don't be surprised, it's normal," said Mr. Zuo, 23, who is from Anhui Province.

China's e-waste nightmare worsening
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071118/ap_on_re_as/china_t...

The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.

snip

This ugly business is driven by pure economics. For the West, where safety rules drive up the cost of disposal, it's as much as 10 times cheaper to export the waste to developing countries. In China, poor migrants from the countryside willingly endure the health risks to earn a few yuan, exploited by profit-hungry entrepreneurs.

snip

Imports slip into China despite a Chinese ban and Beijing's ratification of the Basel Convention, an international agreement that outlaws the trade. Industry monitor Ted Smith said one U.S. exporter told him all that was needed to get shipments past Chinese customs officials was a crisp $100 bill taped to the inside of each container.

snip

And though U.S. states increasingly require that electronics be sent to collection and recycling centers, even from those centers, American firms can send the e-waste abroad legally because Congress hasn't ratified the Basel Convention.

[One Sweet World]

10. Wal-Mart + China = Danger, danger! Doesn't have to be this way?

That's what I think when I read about all the recalls.

@Douglas9 -- Thanks for the alert. It seems like I can barely keep track of all the recalls. Is there an RSS feed somewhere that I can sign up for? j/k. sort of.

Wanted to add to the discussion -- I have done some work for Wake Up Wal-Mart and we did a video a few months ago that is proving to be more and more relevant. Check it out if you get the chance: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nx2ltoqyrEw

I would love to see Wal-Mart take more responsibility in this area, especially because they account for over 10% of ALL imports from China. Just think, if they stepped up and chose to work with Chinese companies on this issue instead of working them to death, which actually CAUSES this issue?

[Quantess]

12. I would like to add, pet toys made in China

are available at every major retail store that sells pet products.

This is NOT just Wal-Mart.

[douglas9]

19. Gold Standard for Pet Food/Toys/etc Recalls thru email alerts

http://www.itchmo.com/itchmos-pet-safety-alert-email-li...

[Quantess]

11. Recommended.

Let's get this on the Greatest page, so that more pet owners can see it.

[Jane Austin]

13. Bet you can't guess how I read this . . . .

"ConsumerAffairs.com reported that a Texas lab found elevated levels of lead, chromium . . . ."

So I'm thinking, "Smart lab!"

[pipoman]

18. We quit buying dog toys at Wal-Mart

a year or 2 ago. We bought some Chinese stuffed bones for our 4lb yorkie, she had the stuffing torn out of them in less than a day. I don't know what kind of dog those toys were made for but our little girl is definitely one of the smallest dogs in our town..the toys were trash. We found some great stuffed toys made in the US at Petsmart. She has had 2 of these for almost a year. We also found that McDonalds stuffed toys are almost indestructible by her. I have to think that there is no snow on Sam Walton's grave as he is producing so much kinetic energy spinning.

[DainBramaged]

23. FUCKING WAL FUCK IS THE CAUSE of all of this mess

THYE decided to fuck with America and outsource EVERYTHING in the early Nineties. They wanted cheaper prices EVERY YEAR and forced manufacturers overseas.


How can you shop there with good conscious????


Read Nickle and Dimed and see what they do to their own employees.









I wear a button on my jacket I got at a rally in 2006 that says I HATE WAL-MART every day now.


Fight the good fight, shop Target or Costco. You may say "oh, well but"! They take care of their employees and are socially conscious!

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

24. With all the news about lead in toys made in China....

Do some people actually think PET toys made in China are lead-free?!? Give me a break!