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62 Comments
- JoeHague, on 07/10/2009, -3/+511 cent for a toxic lead toy that may cost a child his or her life- 100 thousand dollars for an illegally downloaded song that cost 99 cents/
- inactive, on 07/10/2009, -3/+25Shouldn't even be a fine. Any company negligent enough to use lead paint should have no right to do business period. Shut them down entirely.
- KingHarvest00, on 07/10/2009, -1/+20a little lead when you're a kid will make you a more interesting person in the long run
- SaladCactusKing, on 07/11/2009, -2/+18Meanwhile, Jammie Thomas has to pay 1.92 mil to the RIAA. ***** the Judicial System.
- winguero, on 07/10/2009, -1/+14Forget slapping on the wrist, this seems as if the federal government had kittens gently licking the companies hands...
- dty2010, on 07/11/2009, -0/+12Lead can prevent them from growing out of being ***** retarded.
- REWK, on 07/11/2009, -0/+10Kids use their mouths to explore about as much as their hands or feet.
- Barackalypse, on 07/10/2009, -1/+8Of the 9 companies fined, only 2 of them actually manufactured the items in question, the rest were merely importers. This is really just an offshoot of the bigger problem that it seems anything produced overseas must be explicitly tested for toxicity and for performance (think improperly heat treated steel being brittle and failing).
- ftc08, on 07/11/2009, -0/+7Sandpaper tongues.
- Traiklin, on 07/11/2009, -1/+7YOU MONSTER! how are these poor poor corporate CEO's supposed to make a living with that kind of fine?
- inactive, on 07/11/2009, -1/+7I'd bet that 99% of the time the distributor has no idea about the lead. Its not like their execs stand around cackling madly and rubbing their hands together, thinking about all the children they can hurt.
Now the manufacturers (in India / China)... - Gumphlumph, on 07/10/2009, -0/+6One cent is ridiculous, but that's also misleading; only one company got away with such a tiny amount. The absurd part, is that it's also the company the flooded the market with the most product (4 million bracelets). The next biggest was 900,00 items, and they got fined 11 cents per item. WTF?
- ZhiZaki, on 07/11/2009, -3/+9I grew up with lead toys, used lead paints, handled actual lead in science class and such.... Seriously? They are talking about the flecks of paint coming off a toy. Keep it outta the kid's mouth and he'll be fine, or let him suck on it. Lead poisoning requires a fair amount of time to acumulate in the body. It requires contact with mucus membranes or open wounds to enter the body unless ingested in high volume, then ya know that's that. According to WebMD "Most lead poisoning comes from low levels of exposure over a long period of time." I understand the concern to keep these things off the market, but they didn't give the kids glass shards to swallow or anything and they've been punished for it.
Hell half us have been exposed to it most our lives, it's in the damn drinking water. - RAEP, on 07/11/2009, -0/+6So can a lot of other things, like what's on TV.
- rmxz, on 07/10/2009, -1/+6So if it costs $0.02/toy (both in the cost of goods plus the cost of the policies and procedures) to make sure that the lead is not there, what decision will most slimy execs make in the name of their shareholders? (answer below)
Execs seem to forget that their job isn't to maximize the dollars for the shareholders - but rather to execute on the will of their shareholders - which in this case shouldn't be optimizing for profit. - odnaryperson, on 07/10/2009, -3/+8geez... they need to fine aat leaaast 2 cents per toy
- Barackalypse, on 07/11/2009, -3/+8This is SERIOUS, my Grandma and most of her friends grew up in houses with lead pipes, interior lead paint, and asbestos in the insulation, and now most of them are dead! Lead in toys is a far smaller threat to us than food safety (e-coli, salmonella, melamine in the baby formula and dog food, etc).
- Hillsfar, on 07/11/2009, -0/+4How much did each bracelet sell for? If it's 25 cents a bracelet, that's a 4 percent fine before costs and expenses. possibly a 20% fine on profits.
- inactive, on 07/11/2009, -1/+5Capitalism IS corporate fascism young padawan.
- radialturkey, on 07/11/2009, -0/+4Giggidy
- adeelarshad82, on 07/10/2009, -1/+5i think things would have been different had their own kids been involved. Since it's someone else kids 1 cent seems like an appropriate amount to teach them a lesson..... unbelievable.
- KnightMareInc, on 07/10/2009, -2/+6dont worry im sure some free market rules all person will argue there shouldnt be any fines
- ibeetle, on 07/11/2009, -0/+4That is not an excuse psi3. Not one single european toy manufacture has has a lead paint recall in 10 years. Not Lego, not Playmobil, not Plan Toys, not one.
There are CEO's of multi-million dollar international toy companies that do know what their toys are made of; and care. - xenuxenuts, on 07/11/2009, -0/+3They'd also be against making the company pay for supporting the children that they damaged.
- McNasty420, on 07/10/2009, -1/+4So there is a price on permanently damaging a child's brain. Great.
- tgc1, on 07/11/2009, -0/+3Mission Accomplished.
- j035u5, on 07/11/2009, -0/+3I'll play devils advocate for a minute and point out that their shocking introductory paragraph suggesting that every toy sold gave a kid permanent brain damage is crazy. I used to play with lead toys and I can at least perform basic daily talks to a satisfactory level. My dad even has lead water pipes because he insists that there's nothing wrong with that. Which is insane of course.
My point is that there's little point in bankrupting a company for being too slack on their checks of imported toys they buy. Especially when companies are struggling to stay afloat as it is. $100,000 is hardly just a slap on the wrist, its enough to make a company strive to not have to pay it again anyway. Which surely, compensation aside, is the entire point of fines.
I'm sure you can find out the names of the companies and boycott them if you do so wish, but you wont, because you want cheap things, and that means manufacturing plants being a long way away from head office. - JordanTW90, on 07/11/2009, -1/+4You have to realize that entities like this are there to protect businesses and not the consumer.
Hell, the EPA is probably one of the most loved regulators. Many companies have done toxic dumps, knowingly or unknowingly, that would could several million to clean up, and even more money in litigation. But thanks to regulators, they pay a fine, often cheaper than disposing of the toxic materials safely, and laugh all the way to the next toxic dump. - inactive, on 07/11/2009, -0/+3Capitalism sucks eh?
- inactive, on 07/11/2009, -3/+6Individual Downloading a song and costing a business (questionably) $0.99 = $80,000
criminal negligence against innocent child by business = $0.01
yes we get the message. - REWK, on 07/11/2009, -1/+3There are many labs out there that do just this. Obviously the biggest focus for consumer products distributors is on heavy metals, phthalates, and BPA. Testing for these prior/during distribution is cheaper than recalling a product in the magnitude of millions of dollars if you take into account the advertising they have to do to notify the public, the cost of disposing of the recalled goods, fully reimbursing the customer, paying court costs/settlements, most importantly the impact it has on the brand's name. Some labs that perform these tests... Bureau Veritas, Intertek, SGS...
- inactive, on 07/11/2009, -0/+2@ibeetle
I'll grant you that point, however I think its silly to think that all business leaders are caricatures of evil. If I ran a company that made toys and I discovered that they contained harmful ***** I'd not only issue a recall to protect my ass, but I'd put my boot up the manufacturers ass too. Even in great volume, the savings from using poison can't possibly be THAT great.
Then again, I'm a Digger and a biologist not a stupid, greedy MBA'er. - j035u5, on 07/11/2009, -0/+2not every toy damaged a childs brain
- Barackalypse, on 07/11/2009, -3/+5The problem here is that it is impractically expensive to test for every possible toxin that could conceivably be in a product. Lead is just the tip of the iceberg. Would you imagine dog food made in Canada from Chinese wheat gluten contained melamine? Does an American toy importer know a Chinese materials supplier put too much cadmium stabilizer in the plastic they sold a Chinese toy company who made baby bath toys out of it?
- inc595, on 07/11/2009, -2/+4God forbid you copy an mp3 though. That is tantamount to treason. Think of the children when it comes to stifling free speech, but when they are actually in danger it's only worth a penny.
- thefreehunter, on 07/11/2009, -0/+2Yeah, that's actually much more irritating than you may think. I'd rather be slapped on the wrist.
- bdolcourt, on 07/11/2009, -1/+3This is extremely sad...and not because the fines were too low.
The number of children who, in the last 15 years, have actually had lead poisoning from toys is very small (though there are a few). The number who have been poisoned by toys with a slightly high lead content approximates 0. The vast majority of kids (still) get lead poisoning from living in homes with old paint. Yet, most of the Federal government's efforts to prevent lead poisoning is focused on daycares, toys, and playgrounds, with an almost non-existent attempt to actually make the wall's of their home safe.
Articles like this just continue problem. While I don't want kids to have toys with a high lead content, this type of stuff is simply feel good. It does almost nothing to actually prevent lead poisoning in children. - fishshogun, on 07/11/2009, -0/+1That is exactly what I was thinking.
- Bluesky0010, on 07/10/2009, -3/+4nm
- inactive, on 07/11/2009, -1/+2I literally lolled @dty2010.
- robbob, on 07/11/2009, -0/+1multiplying the msrp by 10
- askantik, on 07/11/2009, -0/+1Meh. I'm just glad that some of the hype over "BOYCOTT CHINESE GOODS!!!!11" is somewhat over. FFS, it's mostly AMERICAN companies designing and employing laborers to build these toys. And American companies are selling them to Americans. If these toys were made in America but with the same ridiculous manufacturing practices, they'd still be contaminated with toxins. It doesn't matter geographically where the factory is if it's being paid for and run by Americans, eh? That's like saying Nike isn't responsible for their workers getting paid 50 cents a day just because those workers are in Bangladesh. (If they said that, it'd be like WTF? Nike is still employing those people!)
- Nerys, on 07/14/2009, -0/+1How about context? was it intentional? accidental? negligent? third party involved?
what next? a penny per ATOM in the toys? the amount of toys is irrelevant so saying 1 cent per toy is meaningless.
$100,000 does seem AWFUL low to me though. so again context is critical. - chingy1788, on 07/11/2009, -1/+2$80k per pirated song
1c per brain damaged child
yes, ***** the Judicial System - sooperdooper, on 07/11/2009, -0/+11c per toy is a punishment?
- Yage2006, on 07/11/2009, -0/+110 cents per child ?
Does not sound much better.
How bout 10.000$ per child. - radialturkey, on 07/11/2009, -1/+2Mmm.. Yeah, that sounds about right.
- s0nicfreak, on 07/11/2009, -0/+1Even the gachapon-like machines at supermarkets cost more than 25 cents nowadays.
- macinit1138, on 07/11/2009, -2/+2I think the CEO's of these 9 companies should be given some lead in return--along with a blindfold and a cigarette.
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