Lead Paint in China

More in depth story about the Mattel recall.

Key information:

But that does not explain why Mr. Zhang — who had lead-detecting equipment on his premises, according to Ms. Andres — did not detect the contaminated toys.

“People at Lee Der were never fully able to give an explanation,” she said. “They had testing equipment on site. And they tested before. We don’t know why they didn’t use it” in this case.

Sometimes you buy the machine just to show the foreign buyer and never actually use it.

The article is also not clear how many sub-contractors there are in the process. It seemed like the painting process might have been out-sourced. As it would be labor intensive and nasty work, I would not doubt it.

UPDATE 2007/09/05:

Mattel said in a statement that the Barbie products affected by the recall were produced by Holder Plastic Company, a Mattel contract vendor, which subcontracted the painting of miniature toy pets and small furniture pieces to Dong Lian Fa and Yip Sing. Both companies used uncertified paint and are no longer producing toys for Mattel, the company said.

So the vendors do sub-contract the painting.

The two GeoTrax toys were made by Apex Manufacturing Company Ltd., one of Mattel's contract vendors, which outsourced paint work to a subcontractor, Boyi Plastic Products Factory. Apex supplied Boyi with certified paint; however, the toys were made with uncertified paint. Boyi is no longer in business, Mattel said.

This is what causes gray hairs. They freaking give them the correct paint to use, but still its substituted somehow.

Fisher-Price's Big Big World toy was manufactured by Shun On Factory, one of Mattel's contract vendors, which outsourced the molding and painting of one plastic piece. A subcontractor, Jingying Tampo Printing Processing Factory, used uncertified paint on the recalled piece.

Okay, this looks to be very, very widespread if so many sub-contractors are violating the requirement.

Mattel vowed as recently as last month it would tighten its controls at factories in China. About 65 percent of the company's toys are made in China, and about 50 percent of Mattel's production there is produced in company-owned plants.

I am amazed they make even 50% at their own plants.

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This is what Google thinks are ads that Stoners would be interested in:

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They are from some sort of Marijuana wiki with Google ad-sense ads enabled.

Interesting

Recently we have been hearing that the US special forces in Afghanistan have been relying too much on airpower. Since everything in the press is all "NATO" this and that, its hard to figure out if that is true and if its just a disaffected Brit or two bitching (probably with reason, but an anecdote don't make a statistic to mangle Stalin.)

Today we have three British soldiers killed by friendly fire from US airplanes. Seems like its not just US forces calling in the air-strikes after all. And the "yeah but" folks need to tell me how many Brit/French/German/Dutch planes are on-station versus US planes. (What I am saying is that I am guessing that when the USA represents the vast majority of air power, we will also make the most friendly fire kills...could be wrong though.) Or let me know that the Euros fielded 500 lb and concrete bombs before our forces did in their ongoing efforts to use the minimum necessary force.

BTW, we almost killed Karzai by friendly fire....the Air Force controller on the ground with his group of anti-Taliban Pashtuns re-set his instrument which made his location the beacon for our bombs. I'd say that might explain Karzai's continual criticism of the over use of airpower - he's seen its limits way too first hand.

Christiane Amanpour

She says CNN was intimidated by Bush and FOX news.

"My station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at FOX News."

Eason Jordan admitted that CNN self-censored itself about Iraq due to Iraqi intimidation as well.

So, technically it would all balance out I guess. LOL.

I'd like to ask her if she was intimidated by Clinton, too, into running those stories about mass graves in Kosovo that turned out to be, ehhhh, not so massive. (yes, that's a link to Common Dreams and I do feel dirty.)

p.s. Seriously, who is intimidated by Bush and FOX News???? I thought Bush is an idiot and Fox News is a tabloid TV news station. Christiane should have quit if she had any principles.

Cartoon Cannibals

If I was stranded on a desert island with Mickey Mouse and his gang, without any food, here is the order in which I eat them:

Donald Duck - first to go, if only to stop his annoying voice.
Daisy Duck - Mmmmmmm, duck tastes good.
Pluto - the dog that doesn't talk and thus is less anthropomorphic.
Goofy - black-skinned dogs taste the best according to Taiwanese folk.
Mickey Mouse - not much meat. If he were cane-fed, he would be a delicacy.
Minnie Mouse - the final snack.

Maybe I should keep Pluto around as my companion?

Note to expectant fathers: This is the sort of stuff your brain is forced to come up with to entertain yourself when your toddler demands you play with her toys.

First time I've seen this

The verb "google" used in an ominous sense:

"Two reporters told me that they’d had their names googled at a checkpoint leading into the so-called security square in the middle of the dahiyeh, where the senior Hezbollah members lived."

The poor man's background check.

A cheap man

Mattel advertises on front page of Yahoo

Here's the link. I have one of the toys recalled - in fact it was a freebie at Ding Ding for several months and I even gave one to Ivo. Note that according to Mattel, it wouldn't be affected by the recall since I received them months before May 2007. I 'll probably still junk it.

Here's what they are doing to fix their testing regime:

Regarding our manufacturing processes, we immediately strengthened them with a three-point check system. First, we're requiring that only paint from certified suppliers be used, and we're requiring that every single batch of paint at every single vendor be tested. If it doesn't pass, it doesn't get used.

Second, we are tightening controls throughout the production process at vendor facilities and increasing unannounced random inspections.

Third, we're testing every production run of finished toys to ensure compliance before they reach our customer. We've met with vendors to ensure they understand our tightened procedures and our absolute requirement of strict adherence to them.

That's probably overkill, but it's what I would do in the same situation. It's going to be hard to make shipments on time while testing is being done, so I wonder if there will be delays for Christmas shipments, though I'd guess a lot of those have already been shipped.

It's interesting that they say they are increasing unannounced random inspections - I wonder how many of those they were doing before. The third point is the most crucial, though.

China Toy Association

Companies must not accept orders which are "low priced and with unclear quality demands" nor those which "demand delivery of a large amount of goods in a short space of time and obviously exceed the production capacity of companies," it said.

Or, in other words, don't accept any orders from North America for the Christmas season. Good luck with that idea.

UPDATE on Fisher-Price Toys

Less than two weeks after Mattel Inc. recalled 1.5 million Chinese-made toys because of lead paint, the toy industry is bracing for another blow that could give parents more reason to rethink their purchases just before the critical holiday shopping season.

Mattel is set to announce the recall of another toy involving a different Chinese supplier as early as Tuesday, according to three people close to the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

As I suspected, the second paragraph confirms that the problems were not in a Fisher Price owned factory, but at a contract factory.

Days after the Fisher-Price recall, Chinese officials temporarily banned the toys' manufacturer, Lee Der Industrial Co., from exporting products. A Lee Der co-owner, Cheung Shu-hung, committed suicide at a warehouse over the weekend, apparently by hanging himself, a state-run newspaper reported Monday.

Lee Der was under pressure in the global controversy over the safety of Chinese-made products, and it is common for disgraced officials to commit suicide in China.

Wow. SPECULATION ALERT: I wonder though, if he might have killed himself out of financial anguish (going bankrupt) than some sense of guilt. If you're willing to use lead paint on toys to make a buck, are you really going to feel more shame over being caught or more shame about losing your factory (and thus "face" in Chinese culture?) Chinese factories have massive amounts of "ho lien pi" = thick facial skin. Though, I think this does mean this guy probably made the decision to substitute the paint rather than just being duped by the paint supplier. Either way, this story is getting big.

Before this month, Fisher-Price and parent company Mattel had never before recalled toys because of lead paint.

Bingo. Like I said before, the whole toy industry is very aware of lead-based paint being a no-no. They have been making toys in China for a long time and probably do a lot of testing. I am going to speculate some more that through bribery the contractor avoided testing, got fake test reports, or bribed the inspector to take hand-made samples for testing.

From BBC:

An internal investigation found the toys had been made using a non-approved paint pigment which contained excessive amounts of lead, violating safety standards.

A manager at Lee Der blamed its paint supplier for the incident, according to the Southern Metropolitan Daily.

From CNN:

Cheung was a co-owner of Lee Der, according to a registry of Hong Kong companies. The other owner, Chiu Kwei-tsun, did not return telephone messages left for him.

In its report, the Southern Metropolis Daily said Cheung, a Hong Kong resident in his 50s, treated his 5,000-odd employees well and always paid them on time. The morning of his suicide, he greeted workers and chatted with some of them, the report said.

After the recall, Lee Der maintained that its paint supplier, Cheung's best friend, supplied "fake paint" used in the toys, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

"The boss and the company were harmed by the paint supplier, the closest friend of our boss," Liu, the manager, was quoted as saying.

...
In announcing the temporary export ban against Lee Der, a government quality inspection agency also slapped a similar prohibition on Hansheng Wood Products Factory and said police were investigating both companies' use of "fake plastic pigment." Such pigments are a type of industrial latex used to make surfaces smoother and shinier.

Okay, so perhaps it is the paint supplier after all, and the guy killed himself out of remorse. But this WP quote seems to say my thesis was correct:

"I think the company is about to go bankrupt," said an executive of a Lee Der subsidiary who would not give his full name because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have committed suicide."

This story also says who the paint supplier was:

The paint was sold to Lee Der by Dongxing New Energy, which is headed by Liang Jiacheng, one of Zhang's best friends, colleagues said. It was not known whether Dongxing also was the supplier for Hansheng.

Afghanistan Worries

1. Drug Trade: I really have no idea how to approach that, but I think poppy eradication right now is not a good idea. Some people want to legalize it and tax it to pay for the war, but I think this guy makes a lot of sense on why that can't happen. I also approve of his solution: do nothing.

By the way, the same reasons he lays out for why taxation in Afghanistan is so difficult surely apply to the planning and disbursement of aid. I have no idea what level of aid Afghanistan can absorb, but America's aid of US$ 10 billion in 2007 is about US$ 300 a head or about 30% of GDP per capita. It's going down now to lower levels, but when combined with other countries' aid its still going to be a large percentage of GDP.

2. Civilian Bombings: Supposedly US special forces are using airpower too much. Some of the criticism is for the special forces that operate out of Bagram under a separate HQ - which is bound to cause problems. It might have made sense in 2001-2002, but now we have forces in each province, shouldn't all forces be under unified command? Or maybe I am just thinking of all those cop movies where the FBI comes in and the local police don't cooperate.

Edwards on Trade

Edwards: Freeze harmful imports

Edwards said the nation needed trade rules that protected American consumers and said he would enforce mandatory labeling of foods and other products detailing their country of origin and give the federal Food and Drug Administration the resources needed to keep tainted food products out of the country.

News alert: country of manufacture is already a requirement for imports to the USA. I am guessing he wants to break it down by component or something. Great, more paperwork.

"We'll enforce zero tolerance and immediately freeze the specific import of any food, toys, medicines or other goods that threaten the health of our families and our children," Edwards added. "We will not let them in until we, in fact, know they're safe." In recent weeks, the Tribune has reported on the importation of lead-tainted toys and other products from China. Last week, more than 1 million Fisher-Price children's toys were recalled and before that, pet food manufactured with a tainted China-produced product was discovered.

Just like you will inspect every shipping container arriving in the US for nuclear bombs? He also needs to understand that Fisher-Price probably does have a product testing regime, that requires vendors to test products and pass US safety regulations.

The way vendors who wish to cheat defeat such programs are as follows:

1. Test company is based in China and can be bribed.
2. Samples sent to the test company are hand-made to pass, but production won't pass.

The way to stop that would be to test an actual production run and have it pass the test in the US before shipment would be allowed. That's a major pain, but doable. Of course, if Fisher-Price sends in Chinese employees to sample the production run for testing, they too could be bribed.* (Sorry it's a fact in China.)

Actually, I don't know what happened in the Fisher-Price case - it might have been an honest mistake, though I doubt that as everyone knows that you cannot use lead paint for children's products. Its probably hard to even buy such paint from reputable vendors - it would have to come from a local producer most likely.

"Regular families, their safety and their best interests, should come before the interests of multinational corporations," Edwards said. "This is what smart and safe trade is all about."

Smart & Safe Trade - that's the new slogan, eh? Look, the multinational corporation of Fisher Price is NOT interested in selling toxic toys for additional profit. They are aware that if their brand name is destroyed by selling poisonous toys it will be BAD for profits. They can also be SUED and lose lots of money. Not to mention that some of the owners and managers probably have kids that use Fisher Price toys themselves. It is not in their interest.

*There is also a chance that they made it one of their own factories in China. If that were the case, I would wonder why they do not test their production runs randomly already.

Oh, and John, how about the interest of regular families to get quality health care unburdened by massive malpractice awards based on bunk science coming before the interests of trial lawyers?

Now this is rich, too:

The Democratic candidate also said that as he tries to seek change in Washington, insiders "do not want voices like mine and yours to be heard. They want us to be silenced."

Later, Edwards told reporters that in addition to corporate interests representing the insurance, pharmaceutical and energy industry wanting him silenced, he also was referring to "people like Rupert Murdoch," the head of News Corp. and other media interests because of the candidate's opposition to media consolidation.

Asked if he believed media owners were actively working to prevent his call for change from being heard by the public, Edwards said, "I think they will actively work to keep us from being heard on those issues, yes."

The story ran in the Chicago Tribune, but he's being silenced.

Once Bush is gone, the world will love us again

Right?

Mashed Headline: Faithful pray for Shiite militia attacks

Well they would wouldn't they?

Actual headline:

Faithful pray for Minneapolis victims

And the unfaithful are providing an unsavory kind of comfort for the widows left behind? (This is not so crazy - see Mike and the coma patient's bereaved girlfriend.)

The faithless, meanwhile, just got up and need some coffee before they start doing any real work.

Stayed up late

watching the wife pack for her trip to Canuckistan. Let's say I am not worried if they crash on a mountain and have to trek out - she has everything she needs and can survive by eating her make-up.

So anyways, my eyes are kind of spotty this morning and when opening my browser, I caught the Yahoo news headlines:

U.S. Supreme Court signs arms deal with French firms

Huh? Oh, on second glance, Libya is buying the arms, and the USSC has lowest approval rating in 2 years. My mind mashed them together. Maybe I can make this a new feature.

Pre-Emptive Excuses

Yeah, I lost at Axis & Allies tonight, but it was because Karl drank too much beer, Turton screwed up his Russia moves, Malv touched the dice, and last but not least:

It was AJ's Fault.

UPDATE: I did lose, but it was for none of the above reasons. My skills are lacking. I am getting dumber every day. I need to become a knife-fighter!

Unfortunate Scientific Terms

"Idiopathic" is probably not how you want your malady to be described if you are the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

In a sort of reverse situation, I always suspected that the Janjaweed militia would get some initial sympathy from the hippies. They ought to license their name as a brand of hemp clothing. "Tough enough for ethnic cleansing." as the tag?