Friday, June 4, 2010

McDonald's pulls 12M cadmium-tainted Shrek glasses


McDonald's Shrek the Third (3) Cups/Glasses- SHREK #1LOS ANGELES – 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.
The 16-ounce glasses, being sold for about $2 each as part of a promotional campaign for the movie "Shrek Forever After," were available in four designs depicting the characters Shrek, Princess Fiona, Puss in Boots and Donkey.
In the animated comedy, which debuted May 21 as the latest installment of the successful DreamWorks Animation franchise, the voice of Shrek is performed by Mike Myers of "Austin Powers" fame, Cameron Diaz performs as Princess Fiona, Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots and Eddie Murphy voices Donkey. The movie has been No. 1 at the box office since its release.
The CPSC noted in its recall notice that "long-term exposure to cadmium can cause adverse health effects." Cadmium is a known carcinogen that research shows also can cause bone softening and severe kidney problems.
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.
Cadmium can be used to create reds and yellows in paint. McDonald's USA spokesman Bill Whitman said a pigment in paint on the glasses contained cadmium.
"A very small amount of cadmium can come to the surface of the glass, and in order to be as protective as possible of children, CPSC and McDonald's worked together on this recall," said CPSC spokesman ScottWolfson. He would not specify the amounts of cadmium that leached from the paint in tests, but said the amounts were "slightly above the protective level currently being developed by the agency."
Wolfson said the glasses have "far less cadmium than the children's metal jewelry that CPSC has previously recalled."
Concerns about cadmium exposure emerged in January, when The Associated Press reported that some items of children's jewelry sold at major national chains contained up to 91 percent of the metal. Federal regulators worry that kids could ingest cadmium by biting, sucking or even swallowing contaminated pendants and bracelets.
The consumer protection agency has issued three recalls this spring for jewelry highlighted in the AP stories, including products sold at Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer; at Claire's, a major jewelry and accessories chain in North America and Europe; and at discount and dollar stores.
Those recalls all involved children's metal jewelry — and all of that jewelry was made in China.
Manufactured by ARC International of Millville, N.J., the glasses were to be sold from May 21 into June. Roughly seven million of the glasses had been sold; another approximately five million are in stores or have not yet been shipped, said Whitman.
Associated Press reporters tried unsuccessfully to buy the glasses late Thursday at McDonald's in New York, Los Angeles and northern New Jersey but were alternately told the merchandise was sold out, no longer available or "there'll be more tomorrow."
The company that makes the drinking glasses said it only learned of the problem late Thursday and will look into it. Tom Reed, vice president of human resources at Arc International's plant in Millville, N.J., said the company received a copy of a McDonald's memo on the recall but has not heard anything else.
Reed would not say where the paint was made or whether it's used in Arc's other products. Arc is based in France and owns the Pyrex brand of cookware in Europe.
McDonald's said it was asking customers to stop using the glasses "out of an abundance of caution."
"We believe the Shrek glassware is safe for consumer use," Whitman said. "However, again to ensure that our customers receive safe products from us, we made the decision to stop selling them and voluntarily recall these products effective immediately."
Whitman said that as the CPSC develops new protocols and standards for cadmium in consumer products, "we adjust as necessary to ensure that our customers can continue to trust what they receive from McDonald's."
Federal scrutiny of the glasses began last week. The Washington office of U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who has proposed strictly limiting cadmium in jewelry, received what a spokesman described as an anonymous tip that testing with an X-ray gun that estimates how much cadmium an item contains indicated the metal was present in the glass paint. Speier's office requested samples of the glasses from the tipster, and upon receiving them May 27 sent them to the CPSC for further investigation.
"Our children's health should not depend on the consciences of anonymous sources," Speier said in a statement Friday. "Although McDonald's did the right thing by recalling these products, we need stronger testing standards to ensure that all children's products are proven safe before they hit the shelves."

Thursday, June 3, 2010

How To Buy Portable GPS Navigation Systems and get Best Deals

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years you know that the GPS systems are the hot thing on the market today. If you do not own one of the newer cars on the market then you are going to have to buy your own GPS navigation systems. This is not something that has to be hard, but it is something that you have to look into to make sure you are buying what you really need. There are two main places you can go to get your GPS system. First you can go to one of your local stores and get it. If you do not want to do that, then you are going to have to buy it online.Garmin nüvi 260W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

When you are looking to get a GPS navigation system, you are going to want to know where to get the best deals. Now sometimes your local stores will have a good deal on portable GPS systems, but that is not always a sure thing. Also, not all of us can go out and buy a new car just to get one of these GPS systems. For the people like me that have to shop on a budget, you need to know where to get the best GPS systems at a good price. Local stores seem to overcharge on a lot of things, and this is why I buy my GPS systems online. When you are shopping for these products online you can search a lot of different stores all at the same time. Buy doing this you can be sure that you get the price you want on the GPS system of your choice. After all, if you are going to put down the money on one of these new GPS systems then it might as well be one that you like and you are going to use. GPS systems can be helpful to everyone, and I think that is why everyone should go out and get one. One reason why I really liked getting my GPS navigation system online is the fact that you can compare prices. However, that is not the best part about buying online. The best part to it is the fact that you can compare user reviews. If there is a new a GPS system out there, you can bet that someone, somewhere has used it. Hotdeals with GPS with good deal here

This means that they more than likely wanted to tell everyone if it’s good or not.

Now you can go online look at user reviews and see which one is really the better deal. After all, you cannot always trust what you read on the back of the box. Every company wants to make their product better than other peoples’, but to find out who really make the best you have to ask the people. Only then are you going to find the best GPS system out there.

If you are looking at getting a new GPS system, I think that the best place that you can go to get one is online. Some people think that you are not saving any money online because you have to pay for shipping. This is true, however, usually you do not have to pay so much on shipping that it eats away all your savings. In fact, some studies show that although some of your savings are going to be eaten up by shipping, most people still ended up paying a lot less for it. So go online and get your GPS system today.

Some suggestion below
Garmin nüvi 285W/285WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
Garmin nüvi 765/765T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Magellan RoadMate 1400 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Magellan RoadMate 1470 4.7-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
TomTom ONE 130 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)
TomTom XXL 540S 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
Garmin nüvi 265W/265WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic

Valentino Rossi - MotoGP 2010