Care About This Country? Your Children?...Stop Buying Chinese Products!
By Dave Gibson (11/25/07)
American children are being poisoned by Chinese-made toys, many of our pets were sickened and some were killed by tainted wheat gluten imported from China, and greedy U.S. companies are abandoning American workers in favor of slave labor factories located in China. The question is...When will we the consumers, say enough?
Recently, the product known as Aqua Dots was recalled when several children in the United States as well as abroad became violently ill and slipped into comas after sucking on or swallowing the tiny beads. The "Dots" were manufactured in China with a chemical which converts to GHB (gamma-hydroxy butyrate), commonly known as the 'date-rape drug,' once ingested. The craft toy was sold mostly at Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us stores.
The day before the much talked-about Aqua Dots recall, the government announced a recall of 405,000 toys, most of which were toy cars due to toxic levels of lead. Included in the recall were 308,000 Pull-Back Action Toy Cars imported and sold by Dollar General, wind-up toys, music boxes, toy robots, Winnie-the-Pooh Spinning Tops, and 7,200 "Big Red" wagons imported and sold by Northern Tool & Equipment Co.
In September, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled one million Simplicity brand cribs which were made in China. The recall came after a 6-month-old and a 9-month-old baby became pinned and died in the cribs due to a defect. Several more children became trapped in the cribs but survived.
In 2006, the U.S. had a trade deficit with China which amounted to $232,588,000. As of September 2007, this year's deficit had already reached $187,596,000 and on pace to hit a staggering $250,000,000 by the end of the year.
The following list represents only a small fraction of the imported Chinese products recalled this year:
-baby overalls (imported by Samarra Brothers, metal snaps contained toxic levels of lead)
-ceramic heaters (Family Dollar Stores imported the heaters which overheated and gave off toxic smoke)
-hair dryers (Metropolis Beauty imported travel hair dryers which had no electric shock protection devices as required for all hand-held dryers)
-remote controls (Best Buy recalled 10,000 Insignia DVD Player remotes after they were found to overheat and cause burns)
-children's jewelry (rings imported by Rachel Rose Kidz which contained high levels of lead)
-batteries (JAKKS Pacific recalled 240,000 battery packs made for toy cars after reports started pouring in about the batteries bursting into flames)
-lamps (Currey &Company imported lamps with defective light sockets that presented fire and shock hazards)
-art sets (Toys "R" Us recalled 27,000 Wooden Coloring Cases which were found to contain toxic levels of lead)
-bicycles (imported by Target Stores were recalled after it was discovered that the bike frames were easily broken)
-easels (Distant Learning School Supply imported chalkboard easels which contained toxic levels of lead)
-baby seat (Infant Bouncer Seats imported by Oeuf LLC were recalled after reports of the metal frames breaking began to surface)
-toothpaste (the FDA discovered that many brands of Chinese-made toothpaste contained diethylene glycol (antifreeze) and caused kidney and liver failure)
-tires (Foreign Tire Sales in New Jersey recalled 450,000 tires manufactured in Hangzhou, China posed a serious safety hazard due to tread separation)
-key chains (Dollar General recalled 400,000 key chains which contained toxic levels of lead)
-heaters (Holmes Group was forced to recall 300,000 heaters which contained faulty wiring and presented a serious fire hazard)
-baby clothes (Disney Stores imported sleepwear which failed to meet U.S. flammability standards)
According to China Labor Watch, 80 percent of the $22.3 billion of toys sold in this country are manufactured in China. All of the major U.S. toy companies have turned to cheap Chinese labor to produce their toys. As a result, American factory jobs are becoming non-existent and our children are being poisoned. The importation of so many cheaply-made toys from China is in fact a lose-lose situation for Americans.
What inspired (or angered) me to write this piece was an article about the safety of Chinese products, which appeared in my local paper (Virginian-Pilot) a few days ago. The reporter went to a Toys "R" Us store and asked shoppers for their reaction to the vast number of recalls on Chinese toys. Michele Malana had just purchased Hi! Ho! Cherry-O game for her 3-year-old son. Though the box reported that components of the game were made in China, Malana somewhat reluctantly bought it anyway and made the following statement to the reporter: "If I ever got brave enough, I'd do nothing made in China."
So Americans are not even "brave enough" anymore to stop buying cheap Chinese-made crap?
Ours is a people who gained our independence >from the British empire, discovered penicillin, invented the airplane, went to the Moon, defeated the Nazis and Imperial Japan, and won the Cold War and now we do not have the sense nor the courage to tell China to go to hell? China has put antifreeze in our toothpaste, poisoned thousands of our pets, and exposed our children to toxic levels of lead...How many of us have to become ill or die before we put a stop to this by refusing to purchase anything made in China?
Stores such as Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us and companies such as Mattel and Hasbro will continue to import cheap Chinese goods because by doing so, they nearly entirely eliminate labor costs in the manufacturing process. These corporations have betrayed both the American worker as well as the consumer.
Only the American consumer can put an end to this madness by boycotting all products made in China.
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