The Shrek glasses being recalled. (CSPC)
Associated Press | McDonald’s Corp. has recalled 12 million “Shrek”-themed drinking glasses
in the United States after a federal agency warned consumers to stop
using them because they contain the toxic metal cadmium.
Cadmium
was found in the painted design of the movie characters on the
glassware, which McDonald’s outlets sold for about $2 each, according
to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The glasses also were recalled in Canada. In Ottawa, the Canadian health ministry declined to say how many of the glasses had been recalled there and referred media queries to McDonald’s Canada, which did not return phone calls.
“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,” CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson said in an email.
The CPSC said designs on the glasses, made by ARC International in Millville, New Jersey, contain cadmium and “long-term exposure …; can cause adverse health effects.” Cadmium is a known carcinogen that research shows also can cause bone softening and severe kidney problems.
The agency said no incidents or injuries related to the glasses have been reported, but McDonald’s said it was recalling them as a “precautionary measure.”
Shares of the world’s largest hamburger chain were off 1.2 percent at $67.07 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon.
Wolfson did not specify the amounts of cadmium that leached from the paint in tests by the CPSC but said the levels were slightly above the new stricter guidelines under development by the agency. He said it was far less cadmium than the children’s metal jewelry the CPSC previously recalled.
McDonald’s said consumers who bought the glasses should visit the company website at www.mcdonalds.com/glasses or call 800-244-6227 beginning Tuesday for instructions on how to return them and get a refund.
“The glassware was evaluated by an independent third-party laboratory which is accredited by the CPSC, and determined to be in compliance with all applicable federal and state requirements at the time of manufacture and distribution,” the company said in a statement.
“However, in light of the CPSC’s evolving assessment of standards for cadmium in consumer products, McDonald’s determined in an abundance of caution that a voluntary recall of the ‘Shrek Forever After’ glasses is appropriate,” the company added.
McDonald’s said about 7 million of the glasses had been sold and about 7 million were in stores or had not been shipped yet.
The sale of the 16-ounce glasses was part of the promotional campaign for the movie “Shrek Forever After,” which was produced by DreamWorks Animation and released last month by Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures.
The glasses, which McDonald’s began offering on May 21, came in four designs with characters from the film: Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots and Donkey.
Shrek, the fourth movie in the series about the lovable green ogre’s adventures in his fairy tale land, opened May 21 and is currently the most popular movie in North America, having grossed almost $150 million through the end of May.
The CPSC was alerted to the problem through the office of U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, who was contacted by an anonymous source last week.
“Our children’s health should not depend on the consciences of anonymous sources,” Speier said in a statement posted on her website. (http://speier.house.gov/)
“Although McDonald’s did the right thing by recalling these products, we need stronger testing standards,” she said. “Cadmium is a toxic substance that is extremely dangerous to the developmental health of children.”
McDonald’s last recall with the CPSC occurred in 2002, involving 100,000 Chicago Bears bobble-head figurines with paint that contained excess levels of lead.
keep getting crap from china!
where. were. the. glasses. manufactured?
only 12 million?
So when then recall 12 million tainted glasses – what do they do with them? Put them in our land fills? Or ship them back to China and their land fills tainted….
Keep ‘em. Big time collector’s items now.
Does anybody else think that this premise could make a very chilling movie? How better to slaughter a country. Not by bombs or an army, but slowly take over all the manufacturing of our goods and poison them. By accident? PERHAPS….but Cadmium was found out to be toxic when they recalled those girl’s bracelets last year. I’m sure China made those glasses. Look at the bottom of all those happy Meal toys. Doesn’t say “made in Toledo, OH”, does it?
if you actually take the time to read the article, it says the glasses were manufactured in NEW JERSEY. not china. sorry.
if you actually take the time to read the article, it says the designs on the glasses (where the cadmium was found) were manufactured in NEW JERSEY. not china. sorry.
Got to be from China!! Another plot of Chinese gov try to harm American’s public!!!
Shrek forever…….after you die
Read the article and read it carefully before you jump into hating. The paint was sourced out of New Jersey. Not China.
Hmmm, there’s a little bit of cadmium that might leach out of the paint on the outside of the glass and might therefore be injested (possibly doing harm). Compare that with McDonalds food which is made to be injested and probably every bit as hazardous as the tiny amount of cadmium in the glasses (and undoubtedly kills more people every year than these glasses ever could). Hazard perception has always fascinated me. Here the greater hazard is the one we control, and therefore acceptable.
Not made in China: “cheap U.S.-made collectibles”
It says the product was manufactured in New Jersey, but the manufacturer would not say where the paint was made. Probably China!
http://www.arcb2b.com/
New Jersey office, of France-based company, with offices also in Shanghai.
My money is on China.
As much as I like living in the US, it is the EU that is taking the lead on reducing harmful substances in products. (No pun intended) Cadmium is a substitute for lead in many products and currently it’s use is only prohibited in toys.
Right now, RoHS is limited to electronic products for fear that landfills filling up with TV’s, PC’s, etc will contaminate groundwater. Many US companies need to follow this directive in order to sell their stuff in Europe and some will make all of their products to this new standard because of the documentation nightmare, but we are lagging behind many other countries with respect to legislating product safety. It’s a shame that while the EU is trying to protect drinking water from this poison, someone really screwed up by adding it to glass we drink from!
The crap coming out of China is very scary but a lot of the profits are coming back to the US. I’d save the flag waving and China bashing for another time on this one though. Seems like a lot of countries have their hand in this pie.
http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/article.asp?articleid=97970
Read the article – they were made in the good old USA.
China keeps sending stuff that contains hazardous materials and we keep importing it. Who’s more at fault here?
Tom, you are the one at fault for NOT reading the article. I really wish America’s education system could be imported from somewhere smart.
You folks who keep telling others to “read the article”and “it says Made in US” are the ones who are not reading correctly.
As I posted a few notes above, ARC is NOT the manufacturer— they manufacture NOTHING. They are a DISTRIBUTOR of promotional products. The US sales office is New Jersey.
Good luck to y’all in life, with your impaired reading abilities.
LOL
Some of you people need to do your research beyond just reading the article, and you’ll find stuff like this: “Benefiting from a manufacturing strength which is absolutely exceptional in both Europe and the United States, the ARC International group has extended its global presence in order to intensify the link between production and the marketplace. ARC International is now equally present in the Middle East (Ras-al-Khayma in the Unites Emirates) and in China (in Nanjing).”
I’ll bet the person who thought up this promotion CAME FROM CHINA.
I’ll bet the sand they made the glass from came FROM CHINA.
Mike Myers came from China, not Canada as often reported.
The Tribune is printed on paper MADE IN CHINA and uses ink that comes from China. The online version of the Tribune is presented using electrons, protons and photons that came from China.
All things evil and toxic come from China, even if they were made in the USA.
June You hit the nail on the head there. The food is definitely more hazardous than these glasses could ever be. And who gives little kids that still put their fingers in their mouths a breakable glass anyway. Please find something important to get all up in arms about people.
Tha article in the newspaper this morning failed to mention that the Cadmium came the painting on the glass. If the Cadmium was in the glass inself there would be no danger because the Cadmium would be “tied up” chemically. So when I read the article, I could not tell whether the EPA was being unnecessaryily alarmists. Go to know they weren’t. But when you report something like this, you should realize you need to provide details.
From a Ceramic Engineer.
Virtually every food item on the McDonald’s menu causes cancer and/or heart disease. If parents truly cared about the health of their kids, they wouldn’t be going to McDonald’s in the first place.
It says that the glasses are manufactured by ARC International in Millville NJ, but the do not say that they were actually manufactured in Millville.I’d say that there was a good chance that they were made in China, but a little more data would illuminate the situation better.
Manufactured in New Jersey my eye,shipped to N.J. from China,keep killing us with the help of the U.S. Gov.
Yeah so lets just manufacture them over here so we Americans can expect to pay 3 times as much for the damn products and then all people do is bit-ch about the price!
made in China.. typical krapolla
good grief. 12 million?
i pray mcdonald’s has a recycling program in mind for these returns.
i have an old mcdonald’s glass with grimace painted on it. i
bet it’s also made with cadmium. grimace hasn’t done me in yet.
mike meyers came from china!
that was funny.
Cadmium is in many more products at much higher levels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium Its once again, a government official attempting to make herself look good and like she cares without truly understanding the issues. Even the testing agency admitted that the amount was only slightly higher then the NEW guidelines that are still being examined. Once again, its the over-thinkers in high gear making a messy situation. I really feel sorry that McDonald’s is in a position that they feel they have to cater to a single individual who makes a claim to a single politician what has no real knowledge of this. This continues to perpetuate the idea that you can sue because the coffee is hot attitude. Thanks for over-reacting Rep Speier and being another typical political jackass.