Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Guess What: More Lead-Based Recalls

Okay, I've been making all kinds of vitriolic comments on Goodyblog. I'm pretty peeved about American discounters forcing manufacturing to countries that produce stuff cheaply at the cost of safety standards and general labor/human rights.

Please read this article on the whole Wal-Mart/big box discounter connection with unsafe products for the sake of low, low prices. There are more extended explanations of this connection in books like Shopportunity by Kate Newlin (skip right to the Wal-Mart chapters- they are important reading for any American concerned about their kids' future).

Anyway, our stupid cheapskate desires for bargains have bit us in the proverbial rump yet again. These are the new recalls (through noon CST):
It been a mere week since the last round of recalls. How can a parent keep up? RSS feeds are the only way. (If you're asking what's an RSS feed- see Zrec's great tutorial and learn about the wonders of feed readers like Google Reader.)

Here are the links to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's RSS Feeds and weekly podcasts. Sign up for almost instantaneous bad news.

(Thanks for the RSS tip, Parent Hacks!)

2 comments:

MJ said...

I don't blame the desire for bargains; I blame the desire for stupid cheap crap that we don't really need. There's nothing wrong with wanting a quality item at a good price, but most of the stuff that's being recalled is just junk anyway—and junk is never a bargain, at any price.

Kim Moldofsky said...

Great comment on Goodyblog. You go girl! There hasn't been enough of this sort of talk amidst all the recall banter.

As I've been buying school supplies I'm taking a closer look at labels and trying to buy made in the USA products. Hmmm. Remember when that was Wal-Mart's big thing? The came the price rollbacks and the rest is history.