Your children may be gnawing on China made Thomas trains painted with lead

Interesting, in the race for the bottom, we get the benefit of Chinese business practices. Cool.
I was in a shop that had a goodly number of breech blocks cast over in China, but most had problems with pinholes. Think of the liability of trying to use them, knowing the block may have voids... Liability waiting to happen. End result - the blocks were scrapped IIRC.
One thing to remember about US manufactured stuff is that it's US laws that give you rights to expect good stuff, and if it's defective, the maker usually has to eat the items. Unless it's something for the government (like software) in which case we take it in the shorts...
Interesting reports of Chinese manufacturers being given product to spec for quotes, then somehow that product gets churned out by other shops... There is a move to reduce the protection of US patents to 18 months...
Ignoramus11334 wrote:

What I expect generally, when I look at Chinese goods, is that their makers are not trying to be good and honest, but instead to get away with as much as they possibly can.
People who put lead paint on children's toys that are used by toddlers or even infants (as are those wooden Thomas trains), have no conscience.
i

I am not going to justify the painting of children's toys with paint containing lead. I think something else is going on here. Recently an article in the local Bend, Oregon paper warned about the lead in TV tubes that could leach into the environment. They offered no scheme as to how this could occur, since the lead is dispersed in the glass. This is the same scheme the government uses to dispose of long lasting radio active material and they claim it will be there millions of years from now. They also warned about the mercury in the switches of the TV sets! I don't think I have ever seen a TV with mercury switches.
There are many other products that contain lead and the environmentalists never mention them. Brass plumbing fixtures contain lead, but the only mention is on the package or instructions relating to California. We all know leaded steel will release the lead when it rusts away.
Recently, someone reported lead being leached out of the cover material of a child's car seat. This was news for a day, then disappeared. Why was no more investigation done? All flexible PVC contains lead. Including the common insulation on electrical wires, such as extension cords, line cords on appliances, the wires in your automobile, etc. Why is this not being reported?
So, do we know how much lead a child can get from a toy train? Is it enough to hurt them? Is it in a form that can hurt them? No, we don't. All we know is it came from China.
Sorry,but I just had to get that off my chest!
Paul in Redmond, OR

Goodness and honesty don't come into it, this is basic Adam Smith
No again, this is why we have laws to set levels which experts judge to be acceptable. As a later poster points out, lead is everywhere; the issue is the quantity

I am not aware of children gnawing on TV CRT tubes or on plumbing fittings, but they can easily eat lead off Thomas trains.
I agree with you, though, that lead in glass is not a hazard. I highly approve of glassification of nuclear waste.
i

[major snippage] Speak for yourself. Your ignorance is your own fault; don't presume that others share it. The hazards to children of ingesting lead-based paint are well-established and have been widely known for at least thirty years.
You apparently don't have any children of your own, and have never closely observed anyone else's either, or you would know that little kids put *everything* in their mouths. And chew on it. If the objects are painted, they *will* wind up ingesting some paint.
Again, speak for yourself. That may be all that *you* know. *I* know that U.S. law prohibits the production, sale, or import of toys, cribs, cradles, and other children's products that use leaded paints, and with good reason, namely, the well-established and widely known hazard of lead ingestion. It doesn't matter whether it came from China or Vermont -- lead in a child's toy is dangerous. And it's illegal.

Lead in glass does indeed leach out in acidic environments. This is why lead glazes on plates, bowls, etc is a hazard. Different glasses will allow different amounts to leach out. Leaded crystral glassware leaches lead into acidic solutions like wine for example. The vitrification process used to bind nuclear waste does not use the same type of glass that used for TV tubes or glassware. I don't know what kind of glass TV tubes are made of but I do know that lead leaches from them and this is one of the big contributers of lead in landfills. And the amount of lead required to do permanent brain damage to infants and children is miniscule. ERS

If the Chinese don't watch out, they are going to get such a reputation that few will buy from them. Japan had the same issues as far as quality many years ago and did something about it. I wonder if China will learn from the Japanese?
I suspect Chinese based companies with ties to foreign partners have higher quality levels. As much as corporations get maligned, the last thing they want is lawsuit city in US courts.
Wes

Louis Ohland posted in rec.crafts.metalworking on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:28:30 -0500:

More food for thought:

The Chinese Manufacturer isn't going to be held responsible. They will weasel out of it as usual.

On Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:15:41 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus11334 quickly quoth:
As long as "It's for the Children!" that's good. 'Course, we all survived lead, mercury, asbestos, dust, smoke, fireworks, hot rods, metal- and woodworking machines, skydiving, alcohol, drugs, fights, loose women, and all the rest of the stuff that's verboten nowadays.
I suppose all this worry will limit the population once the little darlings go out into the real world and get munched, because nobody taught them physics, common sense, or street smarts in school or at home. They will all be protected out of existence, Darwin style.
So be it.
- Metaphors Be With You -

On Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:53:46 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus11334 quickly quoth:
One headline we'll probably never see:
"Parents Indicted For Letting Children Eat Toys"

When I was a kid, I had a strange hobby of casting lead, whenever myparents would leaveme alone, I would be either extracting lead from old batteries, or casting.
I probably was hurt by it, though, apparently, not much.
Now, eating lead paint is much worse than lead casting.
Also, not "all" people survived such things, my friend is missing an eye due to some stupid childhood shit.
i

"Ignoramus11334" wrote
I can remember all that stuff. Playing with mercury. Making lead sinkers for duck decoys out of old wheel weights. All the usual stuff. I definitely know I ain't normal, but I lived through it. Now they go into lockdown if anyone so much as breaks a mercury thermometer. Sheesh.
And there's something to be said about a parent who gives a toddler young enough to put everything you put into their hands into their mouths, and then leave them alone to chew on it for long enough to take the paint off of it.
I think there's a lot of room here for the subject of stupid, unobservant, uncaring parents, too.
Then after the kids injured, sue, sue, sue.
BTW, thanks Ig. Got your pkg, and all is well. Been busy moving to a new world.
Steve

There are pushes to close shooting ranges because of the Deadly Lead left behind in spent bullets.
Think there is a link?
I do.
Gunner
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Mayor daley in chicago used that lie to tear down a skeet range 15 years ago. The end justifies the means, its for the children. Long live king Dick.
Best Regards Tom.

Somebody said, but because of the maze of post/repost bullshit, I don't want to even try to link it to the proper person:
The Gun Store on East Tropicana in Las Vegas now has rules in place outlawing many types of common ammunition in favor of the frangible types. Of course, they sell these frangibles. At heavily inflated prices.
I'll just continue to go out in the desert and shoot. In the areas that haven't been closed by the cactus huggers, that is.
And what's the harm in lead left behind in spent bullets? It lays there like smoked cigarette butts. Unless, like unsupervised toddlers, you're left alone to chew on it, or you're too stupid to know the difference? Or you're trying to become a liberal poster child................"Look what happened to me when I chewed on 3,495 spent lead projectiles."
Ah. I love liberalism.
Steve

I rrecently purchased some stuff from Canon (an accessory grip/battery pack) that was made in China. Not the usual junk we've gotten used to.

"When the ends justify the means, the means will become the ends" Richard Lamb 2007

Maybe Joycelyn Elders was right:
"What this country needs is safer bullets." (paraphrased, so don't quote me)
She was actually talking on the subject of gun control at the time.
Steve