McDonald's SHREK Glasses Recalled, and Holy FSM Are People Dumb

[filkertom]

The first part of this story is a consumer safety warning:

Cadmium has been discovered in the painted design on "Shrek"-themed drinking glasses being sold nationwide at McDonald's, forcing the burger giant to recall 12 million of the cheap U.S.-made collectibles while dramatically expanding contamination concerns about the toxic metal beyond imported children's jewelry.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the voluntary recall early Friday, warned consumers to immediately stop using the glasses; McDonald's said it would post instructions on its website next week regarding refunds.

[Emphasis mine.]

The second part is the comments to the story on Yahoo News, in which about half of the commenters talk about cheap stuff imported from China, and the other half basically keep asking the first half if they can frickin' read. My favorite comment is, "these glasses Were not made in the USA!!! They were made in New Jersey!!!" (In fact, the company is a U.S. affiliate of a French company, so it would take a little more digging than I really feel like doing to determine who decided what paint would be used for the glasses and where they were located. But it ain't China.)

This is really the problem, isn't it? You can put something literally right in front of people -- the U.S. manufacture of the glasses was mentioned in the first sentence of the story -- and they'll continue on with their already-internalized conclusions. I'm guilty of it myself.

Anyway. Don't get the Shrek glasses, and take 'em back to McD's if you already have 'em. Or box 'em up and sell 'em on eBay in five years. Somethin'.

Comments

[virtualvirtue.livejournal.com]

OK, two real questions that are NOT addressed in this article (and I wonder where I'd find out):

1. Are they (the CPSC) only worried about cadmium exposure in children or is it not necessarily safe for adults either?

2. Are the Shrek glasses from the previous movie promotion at McDonald's made by the same manufacturer? If so, should people toss those also? (Yes, I thought the previous movie was good and bought a glass because I thought the images were cute.)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

1. Cadmium poisoning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_poisoning)

2. Dunno. If they are, I bet it'll come out by the end of the day.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Yes, that certainly is a problem, but it doesn't mean people are dumb. It happens to really clever people as well. It's when the already-internalised "facts" have a weight of emotion behind them. It all comes down to emotion. I've said this before.

It may go something like this:

1. People are scared of the Chinese.

2. Since they aren't actually waging a war against us at the moment, they must be doing something else, those sneaky et cetera.

3. Aha! They're trying to poison our kids with cheap children's toys! Won't somebody please think of the children, and so on.

4. Therefore any cheap and poisonous children's toys must obviously be Chinese, even if they're not. Or French, of course. (I can't speak for the fiendish New Jerseians.)

You see it in other well-established areas of contention as well. People who aren't emotionally invested in either side of an argument boggle at it, but it's just part of being human.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how that sequence of thoughts is anything other than dumb, especially in the context of a news article explicitly saying someone else was at fault this time.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

But smart people know news sources lie...

No, you're right, that sequence of thoughts is dumb, but only if you see it laid out for examination like that. I can imagine that a really top-flight brain (like what I don't have) could skip from one to four so quickly as not to notice, especially if the owner's bigotry about the people in question were forceful enough. (Can smart people be bigoted? I think they can.) And, as the other commenter says, China has been in the news about such things before.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Nope, sorry. Line of thought, especially in the context of an explicitly contradictory news article, is dumb, full stop.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I yield to your intricate and closely-reasoned argument.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

A slightly less paranoid style of blindness could also be at play.

1. China has, in fact, been in the news concerning various things over the past few years that contain poisons, causing scandals both internally and in export markets.

2. Therefore if it contains poisons, it's most likely from China.

Still wrong, but doesn't require a belief in conspiracy.

[lizziecrowe.livejournal.com]

I believe the comment "these glasses Were not made in the USA!!! They were made in New Jersey!!!" speaks to people having a bad case of the DUMB. Just sayin'.

People are a touch afraid of China, but fear keeps people in chcekc, so governments across the world use it. Rule #4: Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. They're like cattle: one prod and they move as one. In this case, the prod was 'CHINA EVIL! BAD CHINA!' You are indeed correct in this.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I try never to underestimate stupid people in any way, being one.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

I believe the comment "these glasses Were not made in the USA!!! They were made in New Jersey!!!" speaks to people having a bad case of the DUMB. Just sayin'.

The Spousal Unit responded to this, "Must be a New Yorker!"

I've also heard of bureaucrats responding haughtily to requests by people from New Mexico that they are not going to fulfill any requests from a foreign country. (!)

[ericcoleman]

Obviously we have to invade New Jersey.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

I hear there's a big rock on its way.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

It's late. They've been having problems ever since the last one got diverted to some urban development in England. Sources are blaming the wrong kind of hydrogen molecules in the vacuum or some such excuse.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I vote we get Obama to move the oil slick from the gulf coast to New Jersey, thereby killing several thousand seabirds with one stone.

We all know that BP is Chinese or French or something (possibly Mexican too)

[droewyn.livejournal.com]

Totally Middle-Eastern. All bad oil companies are either Middle-Eastern or owned by Hugo Chavez.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Or Russian, or one of those tiny fake countries on the edge of Russia that are really part of Russia but name themselves things like Georgia, South Dakota or New Jersey.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

"We've always been at war with Eastasia New Jersey."

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

But, but, the glasses are CUTE. Grr...

I have them sitting on the shelf; thankfully we haven't used them yet, since I doubt that's good for a kid with heart problems.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

You could divert them to a definitively non-food use, such as a flower vase for artificial foliage. I haven't seen the glassware myself so I don't know if using clear tape or plastic wrap over the outside (see comments in the subthreads below) will work to keep the cadmium from rubbing off the pain and onto the hands of those who handle the cups.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

You know.... last year my ex got my one of those collectible Star Trek glasses because of the new movie - I don't remember who put them out, Burger King or McDonald's. I've been using it regularly. I've not heard any reports. Think there's a way to check to be sure that the paint on the glass doesn't have cadmium?

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

I'd think the glass itself, not the paint, would be the issue -- that's what actually touches the stuff you're drinking.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

From the article:

"In the case of the Shrek-themed glassware, the potential danger would be long-term exposure to low levels of cadmium, which could leach from the paint onto a child's hand, then enter the body if the child puts that unwashed hand to his or her mouth."

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

I was not aware you could even buy cadmium paint anymore. How did this US supplier even get it? The only places Cadmium are still permitted is the Navy and Air force, and they are slowly getting rid of them.

[bruinson.livejournal.com]

Lead and cadmium are present in a lot of paints at trace levels even if it isn't lead or cadmium based paint (red and yellows especially). Also if the paint is not fired properly it is more likely to leach out. There are acceptible levels, really low acceptable levels. Then there are the California acceptable levels which are significantly lower. (We joked that people were weak in California). Most companies that test shoot for the California levels since they are such a big market.

The lab where I used to work tested a lot of decorated glassware for lead and cadmium levels. Our Business Development (Sales) person that specialized in that market got in some promotionional mugs with our companies logo on them to give out to prospective customers. Just as a lark we analysed one and it was way over on acceptible lead levels. We got a big laugh out of it. Needless to say he didn't hand out those mugs.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I love that comment too, "these glasses Were not made in the USA!!! They were made in New Jersey!!!" I'm sure there are people who wish Jersey wasn't part of the US (but I got a feeling the poster thought it was another country and I hope he got flamed for that).

I haven't seen any TV commercials for the glasses either.

Has anyone seen the movie? I noticed that in the previews Shrek has drifted away from its origins. It used to be switching the hero/villain stereotypes with an evil prince and heroic ogre. Now they're back to using the traditional fairy tale villains like witches and Rumpelstiltskin. So it's not fun anymore.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

People don't see the world as it is, they see the world as they think it is.

[ladypoetess.livejournal.com]

From what I was reading you aren't supposed to return them (http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/new-economy/2010/0604/McDonalds-Shrek-glass-recall-leaves-customers-wondering-what-to-do) to a McDonald's location, but you aren't supposed to throw them out, either. Presumably, on the 8th when they release more information, it will include details on how to return the glasses and get a full cash refund for them.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

More likely the reasoning went this way:

1) These days everything is made in China.

2) Chinese stuff has dangerously high levels of poison in it.

3) McDonald's, like lots of other companies, farms out manufacture of its cheap crap to the cheapest contractor (i.e., China).

4) McDonald's glasses are poisonous? Chinese crap!

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Tom, used to be, some "made in the USA" products are actually only finished in the USA--not sure if that's still the case or not. We're going to have to wait & see if more details are published, if we want to know how and where this was done.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

For some people, it always seems to be someone else's fault. Amazing. Here in the US, we couldn't possibly screw up like that!

Yep. Sarcasm.