Today, this article was featured on Yahoo!’s homepage. It documents how American consumers desire toys that are cheap yet made of the finest materials the earth has to offer, even though such trinkets are likely to wind up in a landfill within weeks.
It reads like a joke, and at the end the author suggests that readers could purchase cadmium testing kits if they are worried about cadmium contaminating their ten cent tchotchkes. Did you just spend money on garbage? Why not spend more money on even more garbage to fix the problem! This could be the topic of a comic strip. Buy, buy, buy!
If it were not for consumerism, would this even be a problem? Consumerism is the source of many problems in society. While I do believe that money buys happiness, the happiness is not derived from such junk, but time. Time means freedom to do what you want other than shop.
Aside from the laughable irony, the article is typical media fear mongering. But that’s to be expected from the media in general, and I shouldn’t expect any better from Yahoo!. What typically qualifies as news these days consists of murders, feel good stories (Local Woman Finds Lost Dog!) and fear mongering.
Thankfully, the original article written by the AP actually provided some useful background information regarding what cadmium is, what’s being done about the problem and relevant details, but it is the shoddy summarized version that makes it to the front page.
The original article by the AP states, “Children can be exposed by sucking or biting such jewelry. But without direct exposure, most people do not experience its worst effects: cancer, kidneys that leak vital protein and bones that spontaneously snap.” The summarized article featured by Yahoo! was devoid of context, and simply spit out these worst case side effects, with the implication that even touching cadmium could put a child at risk of snapping bones and dripping kidneys, with no details regarding the various effects caused by the degree of exposure. Wouldn’t recommendation to dispose of all jewelry deliver the message just as well without inciting unnecessary alarm?