Consumers may be wising up to the reality that cheaper not only doesn’t usually mean better, but it also can mean unsafe. China, which is manufacturing just about everything sold in American chain stores these days, is proving itself to be a less-than-trustworthy supplier as far as consumers are concerned. That has been providing opportunities for domestic manufacturers who have been beaten up rather badly in recent years because of the U.S. dollar’s exchange rate and China’s lower production costs.
A couple of years ago, I avoided a fire when I noticed that some Christmas lights, made in China, that I had strung along my wooden fence in my front yard, had overheated and begun to burn the fence. The lights had the Underwriters Laboratories seal of approval, but failed. I returned the relatively inexpensive lights to Home Depot where I purchased them, and chose to take a refund, rather than to get a replacement set. After all, why take another chance?
Who doesn’t know about the chemical, melamine, that contaminated at least two ingredients used to make more than 100 brands of dog and cat foods? China shipped melamine-tainted wheat gluten, corn gluten and rice protein concentrate to North America and South Africa. The contaminated products led to the deaths of many U.S. pets.
This week, the Chicago Tribune reported on an investigation it made into the continued sale of toys manufactured in China that have been recalled because they contain unsafe levels of lead. One test completed for the Trib found lead in a spinning top toy to be 40 times the legal limit.
These examples are a different sort of issue than the trouble that Japan had a few decades ago. I can still remember hearing about “cheap Japanese junk” that broke too soon or didn’t perform as well as U.S.-made products. But safety wasn’t raised as an issue then. It certainly is one with some Chinese-made products.
As the Tribune article states, U.S. consumers are actively looking for toys manufactured domestically, because they refuse to take a chance with the health of their children.
Unless China shows some remarkable progress in its product safety, it will lose business to more expensive, but reliable and safe, manufacturers from other countries.
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August 13th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Nice comments but only concerning the known. It is the unknown that has us all jittery. Disease is rampant here in the USA and many, many diseases of unknown origin are flourishing. Since the FDA checks less that 2% of all imports, just how many years were USA citizens poisoned unkowningly? The diabetic increase charts mirror the Chinese import charts….now that is a scarey fact. It might be about diet and all the garbage in the processed foods coming from China and used by cereal manufactures. There are real reasons to just ban all food imports from China. Did you know they make our vitamins too? What do you think is inside these vitamins that you think are healthy and manufactured in China? We have a major problem that can not be controlled by the FDA…best thing to do is to refuse and ban all food imports from China.
Obewan
August 13th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Let’s not forget about the companies that subcontract the making of their products to the lowest bidder. When margins are tight, safety of the purchasing public isn’t on the top of these CEO’s minds.
Also, just because the product is cheap (I prefer saying inexpensive) or made in China doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. There are plenty of higher priced products that are poor quality because someone wasn’t paying attention. Also, let’s not forget about mad-cow disease which didn’t come from China.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Lew, the “unknown” is a problem. That’s why trust is so important for a manufacturer, distributor, or a country–the higher the trust level, the less worry about the unknown. I still haven’t had time to check into your claim that China makes our vitamins. Will look tomorrow before taking my One-a-Day.
Niel, I know that I am using a broad brush when I label all Chinese-made products as being dangerous. I just hate how easy it has been to show an apparent emphasis on the ends, without concern for the means–when the means involve our safety.
I don’t know what to day about mad-cow disease. Where did avian flu originate? SARS?
August 14th, 2007 at 10:01 am
A Sad Update (Aug. 14, 2007):
A Death over Tainted Toys
This article is a reminder that real people make real decisions in these situations, and when the decisions go horribly wrong, the people involved can suffer real pain. None of which mitigates the suffering that those bad decisions caused others. But who wants people hanging themselves, or being executed, for bad decisions? The positive side of this includes China’s efforts to improve the reliability and safety of the products exported from there.
August 18th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Tom,
No one wants to see anyone lose theri lives over this….but that is the way in a closed communist country. Play with the bulls and you get the horns. These events will not change the fact that the Chinese can not check or guarantee anything concerning their products. They just have way to many exporters and they just can not control the results. They can attempt fear and this is their mo…. but we will still be poisoned on a daily basis…and their is no gumbaha or trust what so ever between our countries. What does exist is big money and business…period. If you ever looked up the Communist Manifesto you would understand that this trade war is just that a real war and not about toys or vitamins. Simply put since when do you do business with a country that plays by its own rules and screws your own countries exporters at every turn. We have had morons in charge of our trade agreements now for years and surely to many lobbyists are in absolute control of our congress and the stupid decisons they make.
Obewan
September 14th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
The main problem, the way I see it, is not even lack of information… because most people do know about the ’so many’ (not all) products made in China, but they are not willing to pay extra $10 for a lead-free toy. The blame is on the public, who continue to purchase low quality/high risk products. It’s also on the ————, who see this problem as an opportunity to profit from it, and charge exaggerated rates and prices. The blame is on every country around the world, whose governments don’t care enough to protect their people, demanding quality assurance. And the blame is also on the lack of affordable local alternatives. Eg.
What does the USA produces in large scale for its population? To the best of my knowledge, there are very few american made toys and practically no american christmas light sets either… We are all to blame, but unfortunately I doubt China is going to learn a lesson or go out of business. There are way to many people willing to play along with it. I guess cheap is good after all.