Tired of Buying Complete Crap
As of yesterday, I've had it.
Does everyone remember the poisoned pet food, which claimed hundreds and possibly thousands of animal lives? Of course you do. This made me very leery of imports, especially imports from China.
Last week I got a notice of a recall on Thomas the Tank Engine toys, because the manufacturing of them has been outsourced to China, and golly, they decided to use lead paint. Never mind that the toys in question have been sitting in my kids' toyboxes for TWO YEARS without a word having been said. I found a total of five recalled items in David's box of beloved Thomas toys. Grrrr! Allow me to put in a plug here for a Missouri-based toy train manufacturer which does not outsource, nor do they plaster their wooden trains with lead paint: Whittle Shortline Railroad. They have a great history.
And then yesterday came the jump ropes.
How complex could a jump rope be? That's one of those classic, enduring, impossible-to-kill sorts of toys, something that every kid should have. I got two of them and brought them home.
By 4:15 p.m., I noticed that David's had started to unravel. ?!?!? He never took it outside, he never played roughly with it in any way. I checked the receipt. Purchase time was listed as 2 p.m. Take out 20 minutes to get home, and you have a jump rope which is literally falling apart in less than two hours after taking it out of the store.
Yes, I called the store. Yes, they'd be happy to exchange the darned thing. But...who in the hell makes a jump rope that falls apart in two hours? I checked the label for the answer: China.
Wait a minute. China had the tainted wheat gluten. China had the tainted rice gluten. China had the lead paint. I have some sense of pattern recognition...what's going on here?
Quite a lot, it would seem. According to the Washington Post headlines, "Tainted Chinese Imports Common." In fact, 68 percent (104 of 152) of all product recalls announced since January of this year have been for things made in China. Baby swings and carriers which break and cause babies to fall to the ground (and includes a skull fracture), swimming pool ladders which fall apart (21 stitches), Easy-Bake ovens that trap kids' fingers and burn them, cheap electric (oil-filled, under $50) heaters that burn houses down, circular saws with faulty guards that result in lost fingers.
It seems that lead is also an extremely popular manufacturing agent...one which China puts into many things, especially things for kids. Lunchboxes, little girls' eyeshadow and especially kids' jewelry all seem to be high in lead content. In fact, USA Today is reporting "China balks at lead limits on kids' jewelry." Now I'm concerned about Lauren's cache of junk jewelry...almost all of it comes from the Dollar Store, and I'm willing to bet $1,000 it was all made in China. How much is made with lead?
With all this in mind, I started checking labels at the toy store. Maybe I should simply avoid things made in China.
Almost EVERYTHING is made in China. A few things are made in Vietnam. A few from Germany. But almost everything is made in China. This journalist wrote about boycotting all products made in China for one month...not nearly as easy as it seems at first.
But is it worth it? Aside from the kids' products, what's the harm? Well....I bought a lot of kitchen towels from Costco and they shredded in the laundry the first time I washed them. And tonight I did a load of laundry...good stuff, too...and the dye from the clothes (made in India this time) came off and ruined a pair of pajamas and my favorite shirt and skirt set of Lauren's. Instead of the bright white they were, they're now splotched with purple. :-( Damn.
I don't know quite what the answer is, but I'm beginning to believe that it isn't continuing business as usual. I will continue to check labels, and avoid China when I can.
Does everyone remember the poisoned pet food, which claimed hundreds and possibly thousands of animal lives? Of course you do. This made me very leery of imports, especially imports from China.
Last week I got a notice of a recall on Thomas the Tank Engine toys, because the manufacturing of them has been outsourced to China, and golly, they decided to use lead paint. Never mind that the toys in question have been sitting in my kids' toyboxes for TWO YEARS without a word having been said. I found a total of five recalled items in David's box of beloved Thomas toys. Grrrr! Allow me to put in a plug here for a Missouri-based toy train manufacturer which does not outsource, nor do they plaster their wooden trains with lead paint: Whittle Shortline Railroad. They have a great history.
And then yesterday came the jump ropes.
How complex could a jump rope be? That's one of those classic, enduring, impossible-to-kill sorts of toys, something that every kid should have. I got two of them and brought them home.
By 4:15 p.m., I noticed that David's had started to unravel. ?!?!? He never took it outside, he never played roughly with it in any way. I checked the receipt. Purchase time was listed as 2 p.m. Take out 20 minutes to get home, and you have a jump rope which is literally falling apart in less than two hours after taking it out of the store.
Yes, I called the store. Yes, they'd be happy to exchange the darned thing. But...who in the hell makes a jump rope that falls apart in two hours? I checked the label for the answer: China.
Wait a minute. China had the tainted wheat gluten. China had the tainted rice gluten. China had the lead paint. I have some sense of pattern recognition...what's going on here?
Quite a lot, it would seem. According to the Washington Post headlines, "Tainted Chinese Imports Common." In fact, 68 percent (104 of 152) of all product recalls announced since January of this year have been for things made in China. Baby swings and carriers which break and cause babies to fall to the ground (and includes a skull fracture), swimming pool ladders which fall apart (21 stitches), Easy-Bake ovens that trap kids' fingers and burn them, cheap electric (oil-filled, under $50) heaters that burn houses down, circular saws with faulty guards that result in lost fingers.
It seems that lead is also an extremely popular manufacturing agent...one which China puts into many things, especially things for kids. Lunchboxes, little girls' eyeshadow and especially kids' jewelry all seem to be high in lead content. In fact, USA Today is reporting "China balks at lead limits on kids' jewelry." Now I'm concerned about Lauren's cache of junk jewelry...almost all of it comes from the Dollar Store, and I'm willing to bet $1,000 it was all made in China. How much is made with lead?
With all this in mind, I started checking labels at the toy store. Maybe I should simply avoid things made in China.
Almost EVERYTHING is made in China. A few things are made in Vietnam. A few from Germany. But almost everything is made in China. This journalist wrote about boycotting all products made in China for one month...not nearly as easy as it seems at first.
But is it worth it? Aside from the kids' products, what's the harm? Well....I bought a lot of kitchen towels from Costco and they shredded in the laundry the first time I washed them. And tonight I did a load of laundry...good stuff, too...and the dye from the clothes (made in India this time) came off and ruined a pair of pajamas and my favorite shirt and skirt set of Lauren's. Instead of the bright white they were, they're now splotched with purple. :-( Damn.
I don't know quite what the answer is, but I'm beginning to believe that it isn't continuing business as usual. I will continue to check labels, and avoid China when I can.
Labels: chinese imports, lead paint, made in china, Thomas the Tank Engine
posted by Kelly at
1:28 AM
1 Comments:
Man!
Yesterday I noticed that the Costco gas station attendant's badge even said, "Made in China."
It used to be that everybody avoided things made in Japan due to their poor quality.
I certainly will try to avoid China stuff if I can. How awful.
And speaking of avoiding things, the Costco guy was telling me to be careful not to fill up an empty tank on a hot day. Seems the tank fills with vapors, and although the nozzles are theoretically supposed to be able to handle that, if there's too much vapor the gas can explode right out of the tank during fill-up. Thought that was worth passing along.
Mom
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