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Do they mean nickel cadmium batteries? I've never heard of just cadmium batteries.
Do they mean nickel cadmium batteries? I've never heard of just cadmium batteries.
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Mattel: Performance advantages outweigh worker safety
Well for a communist country you figure china would have some kind of law or rule to make sure the place was properly vented or that the workers had respirators and were isolated from the rest of the plant...but they did not
Maybe the plant should have known there may have been some kind of danger with the cadmium and done something about it but no...
For an engineer like herself maybe she should have figured that breathing in that crazy red dust would be affecting her health but continued to work there.
When no one else is looking after you the responsibility is yours to protect your self, she did not do that and I do not sympathize with her.
I just ordered that 50 pack of batteries from batteries.com for $11.
Thx consumerist for the link and thank you for giving your life to make my goods cheap, china. XOXOX
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This is one of those cases where everyone would benifit for the manufacturer being in the United States. It would generate jobs, the work environment would be safer (perhaps not even making that type of battery). In fact, people would be more aware of the saftey hazards for that type of battery, as it is happening to U.S. citizens, and it might get phazed out. While it would cost more for the toys, it would balance out by having more overall income for the country, less unemployment.
Of course, this might be all naive of me, just a thought.
On rechargeables, it is pick your poison (literally).
Do you want cheap & reliable (but toxic to make) NiCad batteries?
Or expensive and flammable and difficult to charge LiIon batteries?
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@inspiron: They have no incentive to put any safety measures in place. It'll cut into their profits. China has a practically infinite supply of workers willing to come to the city to replace Wang. When people are that numerous and disposable, why should anyone care?
Answer? Stop looking only as far as your own wallet and Boycott the Chinese Poison Train in every way possible.
Cheap inferior dangerous goods are no bargain. Especially in the long run.
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@inspiron:
What a dick.
People in China are not educated to the risks, and that's the reason things are so cheap to make there. They haven't the years of experience (and disasters) that we have with these materials. It sounds like they will learn.
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I'm confused by the whole Mattel toys thing. Since when did toys include batteries?
@LANDRU: If she's an engineer she should have the basic chemistry skills. Saying that she's \"just not educated\" doesn't make any sense.
I find GP batteries in almost every toy and product you buy from a store shelf that has batteries included in it.
@DrGirlfriend: performance advantages is a PR cover. Except for not dying as easily from heat, the only advantage to NiCd now is cost. And by heat, I mean being too hot to hold, and maybe hot enough to immediately burn you. Run of the mill NIMH, LSD NIMH (Eneloop, Hybrd), and high capacity NIMH cells are far superior to NiCd.
Sometimes there are other benefits to paying a little more than just performance on the face of it. You can still get NiCd cordless phones from dollar stores, right now. I didn't know that until just a few months ago--I've been using them with NIMH for over 10 years, now.
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At some point our species will make another jump in technology and change the environment, for the better. This has gone on since man walked upright. Sure it sucks for the people who are screwed today, but this is life.
Just look at America in 1865. No antibiotics, basic medical care and no OSHA. WE have progressed, so will the rest of the world, but lets face facts: The 1st use of Ether as an anesthetic was in 1842 and today we can replace the heart. It's gonna take some time.
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@dgcaste: No he ahs a point. If even the \"educated\" class of workers doesen't have a clue about work place dangers than they are really trying to keep the workers as dumb as possible.
When you have a unlimited supply of workers why would they give a crap about safety.
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@Nemesis_Enforcer: He's rebutting the idea that she's uneducated with the plain logic that it \"doesn't make sense\". Which makes him a moron, since 1- it's possible for her to be uneducated (which is your point) and 2- uses very weak logic.
Really, really sad. Just one of many examples of this kind of thing.
I guarantee the CFL bulbs made in China will be exposed for the same kind of problems. I am sure they are handling the mercury just as responsibly as the cadmium over there...
@xerloq: that stuff is heavy and quick, its about as heavy as steel and when compared to water, water moves like cold maple syrup compared to this stuff
@darkclawsofchaos: so basically is like having a steelrod shoved down your throat, not that you'll live that long anyway though...
@Applekid:
and
@Shadowfalls:
nweaver might be more correct than you think. NiMH batteries are a lot more environmentally unsound than you seem to suggest, in some cases not much better than NiCd. Some of the 'metals' that make up the \"M\" in NiMH are almost as unhealthy to humans as Cadmium. Excessive Manganese exposure, for example causes Manganism.
That's just the health side of it. As far as destructive environmental impacts, mining these hard-to-extract \"rare earth\" metals can have a greater impact than mining more commmon metals.
It really is a case of pick your poison.
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I have said it before and will say it again:
In the future the USA will be on the health and environmental clean-up hook by the United Nations due to our consumers purchasing goods made in places with non-existant H&E laws. The Walton family (for example) will have made their billions and walked away from the problem leaving the end consumers to pay the price. This is in addition to the direct H&E safety issues like lead paint on toys, substandard auto-parts, etc.
Pay me now or pay me later...