A New Zealand boy suffered third-degree burns after his Chinese-made pajamas, a brand recalled for containing 500-900 times the safe levels of formaldehyde, caught fire after he sat near a gas heater.
3-year-old Jack Livingston’s jammies, which had already been washed at least 10 times, bore a label proclaiming they had a “low fire danger.”
“If we had not been close by in the house, he would have been totally burnt. The pyjama top completely disintegrated, there was no smouldering just flames,” said Mr. Livingston.
Jack is said now to be recovering well and running and playing normally.
There’s no evidence the pajamas have made their way to the US, but the story reveals the importance of keeping abreast of the latest consumer product recalls.
Jack’s brush with death [Waikato Times]
(Photo: Iain McGregor)
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@trai_dep: Oh yeah, because the things that a Chinese company does is SURELY REPRESENTATIVE OF EACH AND EVERY CHINESE PERSON!
What an utterly idiotic comment.
@uberbitter: Isn’t it actually required by law that infant PJs be fire retardant/resistant in the US?
@Syd: “Maybe buying something electrical from a second- or third-world country isn’t such a good idea anyway.”
Frankly you’re probably safer with those than with a lot of things, since if it’s electrical, it’s probably UL-tested.
This happened to me also. I bought my daughter pajamas, overnight they lay across a floor heating vent, the next day, they were huge holes burnt clear through the material.
scary if she would have been wearing them.
@DingoDigger:
China |ˈch Ä«nÉ™| a country in eastern Asia, the third largest and most populous in the world; pop. 1,298,847,000; capital, Beijing. Official name People’s Republic of China.
Chinese | ch īˈnēz| adjective of or relating to China or its language, culture, or people. • belonging to or relating to the people forming the dominant ethnic group of China and widely dispersed elsewhere.
It pains me that I need to copy/paste dictionary definitions in comments fields. Please, Dingo, help stop me from doing it again.
@homerjay: Everyone is gawking at China because:
A. To take away attention from Bush and his White House scandals and his non stop evoking of executive privilege in an attempt to cover up his own corrupt doings.
and
B. To detract customers away from Chinese made products in an attempt to lessen to growing trade deficit that America has with them.
It is sad that some people will still associate an entire race of over a billion people for the actions of a few.
@trai_dep: You are a F#@$king idiot. Just stop talking. You backwoods redneck hillbilly product of incest.
@quantum-shaman: I got to say, these are international matters, so unless you know the history behind it, which I’m sure you don’t you really shouldn’t comment on it.
@quantum-shaman: Chinese are lazy, let me ask you what race are you? And if American what country of origin.
@trai_dep: IS it out of line to kidnap your mother and beat her to death for having such a moron for a son?
@quantum-shaman: That comment is blatantly racist, out of line, and not to mention, off-topic. Cool it.
@Rectilinear Propagation:
A lot of people are poor because they spend money on a lot of unnecessary things like cable TV, cell phones, eating out all the time instead of cooking in, FIOS internet service instead of dialup etc.. You would be surprised at how much money people waste on unnecessary things
@quantum-shaman: What, do you live in the confederate south or something you ignorant sack of sh!t you must be trai_dep’s brother in law who is actually your blood cousin that married your sister. But really, what ethnicity are you
It doesn’t matter how little you want to pay for you items, the nature of capitalism dictates that the company selling it (for whatever price) will aim to make the most profit on it. If there are companies in China that can make the products for less than it costs to make locally, then that’s where it will be made.
The Mattel toys are a prime example of that, Mattel/Fisher Price is a premium brand, they cost a lot more than many other products in their class, and yet they are made in China.
These things are coming out at the moment because of the focus on China (in the media, and in our minds). There are a phenomenal number of products in the market that are made in China, and very very few are a danger. Also, locally made products are also often the focus of similar safety scares.
I’m not concerned about goods from China – and my 2 year old has pajamas from The Warehouse, so there.
…and the wingnuts go insaaaaane!
People, it’s fine to blame a country if it does bad things. It doesn’t mean that all the people of that country are bad, let alone everyone of that ethnicity. Sort of like how 80% of the world thinks the US is an ass, yet remarkably, Americans abroad don’t find themselves waterboarded by vigilante locals giving an eye for an eye.
Next time you’re abroad, see for yourself. Whoops – it’s painfully obvious that you don’t get out much. So you’ll have to take this on faith (do that a lot anyway, right?): “China” isn’t “Chinese”. And it doesn’t give a dispicable gov’t a free pass.
Tho, if their leaders’ kids had to endure the ills from their policies, I’d bet they wouldn’t have done them. Just like if the GOP chickenhawks’ kids were drafted.
@trai_dep: Now I’m reaaallly confused. “Don’t play the race card” @Asherchang when he rightfully rebukes the inbred racist comments from quantum_shaman and god knows who else?
Make up your mind. You claim you hate China “The Country, dude, not the people” but then “they” can die a “long, slow flaming death”. Who’s “they”? A country in eastern Asia, right. Not ALL Chinese, just the 1.3billion who are trying to poison and formaldehyde us to DEATH. Gotcha.
You disgust me. Stay in America, please. The only reason we furriners don’t waterboard your ass is that we’ve moved on beyond your macho, Us vs Them posturing years ago.
BTW it’s not “provencial” (sic) to see and call out a political vendetta being played out in the press. Even Consumerist has to bow down to the almighty Yellow Peril fearmongering.
Anyway, you’ll be fine. Just don’t look at those slant-eyes funny and they won’t formaldehyde you to DEATH. (Dear god, will I need a < SARCASM > tag for that?)
And oh yeah, to Ben: I know that Consumerist is meant to protect, you know, the consumers, but how about policing the level of discourse a little more. A rebuke is fine, but seriously replace “Chinese” with “black” and see how comfortable you feel with the hate that’s being spewed in your comments.
@DingoDigger: Sue me
@asherchang: It doesn’t have anything to do with xenophobia or racism. There are actually lots of things I like about China, but not right now. They are a communist government that has gone capitalist in the most exploitative way possible, and that brings out the worst in them from all sides. They’re HEINOUS. Besides all the crap they are dumping onto the market, setting people’s kids on fire and putting people into the hospital with their polluted damn toothpaste, you should not forget to remember how they treat the Falun Gong practitioners, criminals, and innocent animals.
@iKnow: I’m an American of Chinese descent, you moron. And I mean “lazy” in the sense that they just do not give a flying F@*K about what they put into their products, or how much people suffer as a DIRECT consequence of using those products. Do ya get it?
@Ben Popken: No it isn’t. Sorry you read it out of context.
@shoegazer: *Sigh*. This is my last comment, just to clarify, and so you can all stop playing the race card like it was going out of style in a flaming Casino in Vegas. I do NOT have ANYTHING against the Chinese people because of their “race”. I have a LOT against them because of what they are doing to the international markets right now. If you think kids going up in flames, or people and animals dying because of their poisonous products is not a VERY serious problem, and if you think that I am a racist because I dare to vociferously oppose such hideous practices, along with the other things they do… like skinning dogs alive, boiling cats to death, and killing prisoner and selling their kidneys… it is YOU that has the REALLY BIG problem, NOT me. And just so you know, I happen to have an interest in Chinese culture and history that goes back a LONG way, but that was before they became capitalist communists.
@shoegazer: I’m neither inbred nor racist and I completely resent your ad hominem, arrogant, hate-filled and very personal comments directed at the individuals on this board.
@iKnow: What a frigging creep you are. I’m a “racist” because I criticize the Chinese, but you can make all sorts of nasty comments about Americans who live in the south? Please, explain how that works.
@skrom: A lot of people are poor because they don’t make a lot of money.
@quantum-shaman: No one read it out of context.
There’s a difference between saying the Chinese government is horrible or these Chinese companies are horrible and saying that Chinese people are horrible.
I’m laying down the flame-war asbestos and locking comments shortly.