Forum Moderators: phranque
"Handling the cord on this product will expose you to lead, a chemical known to the state of California to cause [cancer, and] birth defects or other reprodctive harm. Wash hands after handling."
****!
Needless to say my wife is 5 months pregnant. Should i throw this piece of crap out and sue memorex? Why are they selling keyboards with lead in them?!
Anyone else see this tag?
Handling the cord on this product will expose you to lead, a chemical known to the state of California to cause
Do a search in your favorite SE for the above sentence and you'll see a bunch of people with the same concerns. It appears that cords have always had lead in them, California just happens to require a warning label for consumers.
P.S. This not only applies to computer equipment. It looks like there are quite a few cords out there that bear this label.
I think it's all highly excessive. I seem to have gotten through childhood in spite of using cap guns, falling down the stairs and swallowing a few screws, a coat hanger (now that's a story) and some Tide (the third arm on the back of my head is kind of annoying, though!) Back then (35 years+ ago) kids played with real wooden slides (with splinters), the toy tool kits had real saws and the hazmat team did not quaranteen the neighborhood just because someone spilled gasoline while filling the tank on their lawn mower!
I grew up with lead miniatures, lead paint and even lead-lined drinking glasses.
Richard
If this is some over the top warning, that's one thing. It's ridiculous to scare those of us who have children (or will have children soon) with these bogus warnings.
But lead exposure is serious business, and can definitely cause harm in unborn children.
As implied by the article bcolflesh links to, I think also that you'll find that all manufacturers use lead in the manufacture of PCs and peripherals (I suspect the lead in your keyboard cable is in the solder, conecting the wires to the plugs at each end). Any keyboard you buy will have cords of similar composition.
The notices are all about legal liability. New Scientist carries a gem each week on this topic (which doesn't seem to be reproduced on their web site). This week, it quotes a label on a box of lemon meringue: "Warning - contents will be hot after heating". ;)
Then they sell (reuse) non dangerous materials. The dangerous ones get sent away to china, where people burn them on fire. They even showed a footage of a man (with no uniform, no glasses, nothing!) burning boards on fire and extracting gold (i think) from them. That is terrifying!