3 ms·

"There’s nothing positive that you can say about this metal. It’s a poison" Unless you're operating a nuclear reactor.

• nostrademons 17y ago
  Yeah, that struck me too. My dad did his doctorate on cadmium; his jobs included things like cancer research and solar cells. There're a lot of uses for heavy metal radioisotopes. Like anything else, they're tools - they can be used for either good, evil, or indifference, depending upon who's using them. I certainly wouldn't give it to a child to play with, but the overall tone of this article seemed very much like plain old scaremongering. I'd believe it more if they'd used a more neutral, scientific tone. It'd also help had I not checked on their "CDC list of 275 most hazardous chemicals" - the only Google result that wasn't a reprint of the article was this: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxpro2.html http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxpro2.html There are 275 toxicological profiles, but they are not ordered; I can't find anywhere where cadmium is #7.
  • ilkhd2 17y ago
    http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/cercla/07list.html http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/cercla/07list.html
    • nostrademons 17y ago
      Nifty; missed that. Again, I don't think that cadmium should be in toys, but I'd like to point out that according to the fact sheet, shellfish and leafy vegetables are your most likely sources of exposure. And smoking of course, which doubles your cadmium exposure. Somehow smoking never seems to cause quite as much of a panic as Chinese toys, despite all the other known carcinogens in cigarette smoke...