No Lead, Mostly Cadmium, All Fail!

At TFS Magnum I saw a spotlight on the Verry high kwarrity junk you get for your children from china: They stopped using lead in reaction to parental and legislative freak-outs a year or two ago, and started using (more-toxic) cadmium. The money quote from the Yahoo/AP story:

Twelve items had cadmium levels of at least 10 percent by weight. One piece had a startling 91 percent, and others contained more than 80 percent. The government has no restrictions on cadmium in jewelry.

Children can be exposed by sucking or biting such jewelry. But without direct exposure, most people do not experience its worst effects: cancer, kidneys that leak vital protein and bones that spontaneously snap.

Lovely. Still another reason NOT to buy Chinese. This time, at least, the lawmakers seem to be all over fixing the law to cover the Cadmium Loophole.