Kids who want to play CSI can use a kit that shows how to dust for fingerprints, blowing away excess powder in the process. The play dust, however, contains enough asbestos to trigger cancer later in life, according to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, which tracks toxic ingredients in consumer products.
Watchdog groups call hidden asbestos the crime in this scene.
(Credit: Planet Toys)The powder was found to contain as much as 7 percent of tremolite, one the most fatal forms of asbestos. One-time exposure has been linked with developing lung disease and mesothelioma years or decades later. The toxicant was found in six of eight samples tested by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization during a five-month examination that also found asbestos in toy clay.
The maker of the CSI kit, which is produced in China, said it performed its own tests and found no asbestos. The package continues to be sold for between $10 and $30 at eToys, Toys R Us, and other merchants.
Tests released by other nonprofit environmental groups Wednesday found lead, arsenic, and other toxic chemicals in more than one-third of 1,200 popular toys, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Some consumer advocacy groups believe that lead appearing in jewelry and children's toys made in China may originate from circuit boards and other parts of discarded electronics.
Such news may lead parents to worry about a world more dangerous than the one in which they grew up, as today's playthings can harm children's health or just addle their attention. Toys of the past, like the Zulu toy gun, may have been more obviously hazardous, but hidden toxic ingredients are harder to measure.
An injection of graphite foam is giving new life to the venerable lead acid battery, according to Firefly Energy.
A standard lead acid membrane.
(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)The Peoria, Ill.-based company has come up with a way to coat the membrane, a fan-like lead lattice that allows the battery to generate electrons, with graphite foam. This change results in a more efficient battery that can extract more electricity from the electrolyte, release more electricity per charge, and endure more charging cycles. The battery also will last longer. The foam gives the membrane a larger surface area for reactions.
Firefly's Oasis batteries are designed for long-haul trucks. Truckers typically run their diesel rigs all night, mostly to keep the air conditioning or heating going in their sleeping units, not to mention the TV. Next year, California will impose regulations that only allow truckers to run their rigs in idle for five minutes every hour. The new regulations are designed to cut down on diesel fumes and greenhouse gases. That leaves truckers the option of broiling (or freezing) or waking up every hour.
Firefly's batteries are designed to provide enough power to run the electronics in the sleeping cabin the entire night without depleting the batteries.
The company will come out with samples of so-called Group 31 batteries for long-haul trucks in the first quarter of next year and begin full production in the fourth quarter of 2008. Negotiations with large customers are already under way, according to Firefly executives.
Now with graphite foam.
(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)Lead acid batteries were invented more than 100 years ago, but there haven't been many major architectural changes since manufacturers figured out a way to produce batteries that didn't need to be refilled with a hose a few decades ago, Firefly co-founder Mil Ovan said in an interview. Lead acid batteries, though, have a lot of advantages over nickel-metal hydride batteries (which are more expensive) and lithium-ion batteries (which can blow up.)
Firefly's basic technology comes from Caterpillar.
Initially, the membranes in the batteries Firefly will make will contain lead. The foam essentially covers it. But over time, it will try to remove the lead.
Circuitboard cufflinks are safe.
(Credit: Circuitboard cufflinks are safe.)Castoff computer parts can make for quirky jewelry, if you feel like flashing keyboard button earrings or circuitboard cufflinks.
Unlike these models of creative recycling, some costume jewelry imported from China contains heavy metals from discarded electronics and could make you sick, as the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
No lead in these button earrings.
(Credit: Etsy)Some novelty necklaces and earrings are laced with lead and antimony that likely came from e-waste thrown away by consumers in the United States and other developed nations, then shipped to China for unsafe recycling. "Best Friends Forever" necklaces from Claire's mall shops and stud earrings from Kmart were recalled here in recent months. Accidentally swallowing such leaden baubles could kill a child.
Keeping lead close to your heart.
(Credit: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)The story is a strange twist of fate for the materials inside some of the tens of millions of pounds of computers, monitors, cell phones, and countless other gadgets discarded each year. Watchdog groups want U.S. companies to stop shipping e-waste overseas, where poor people in China, India and elsewhere smash and burn the trash to sell gold, copper and other valuable components, but can get sick in the process from the poisonous metals and plastics. On the flip side, some consumer groups fear that the lack of federal laws around toxic tech in this country will lead to more imports of products rejected as unsafe by Asian and European markets.
When recycling your tired gadgets, it can be hard to tell what their final destination may be. This list of recycling programs from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is a good guide.
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