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Friday, June 4, 2010

McDonald's Shrek Glasses Recalled

Just recently, it has been known that the Shrek-themed glasses of the giant fastfood chain are tainted with cadmium. This forced the company to recall an enormous 12 million US-made collectibles. 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. Everybody is talking about the toxic effect of Cadmium, but what is Cadmium? It is a chemical element with the symbol Cd. The soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other metals zinc and mercury. Cadmium occurs as a minor component in most zinc ores and therefore is a by-product of zinc production. Cadmium was for a long time used as pigment and for corrosion resistant plating on steel.
Can you just imagine if you are the one taking it? Ingestion of any significant amount of cadmium causes immediate poisoning and damage to the liver and the kidneys. Compounds containing cadmium are also carcinogenic. The bones become soft (osteomalacia), lose bone mineral density (osteoporosis) and become weaker. This causes the pain in the joints and the back, and also increases the risk of fractures. In extreme cases of cadmium poisoning, mere body weight causes a fracture. The kidneys lose their function to remove acids from the blood in proximal renal tubular dysfunction. The kidney damage inflicted by cadmium poisoning is irreversible. The proximal renal tubular dysfunctionhypophosphatemia), causing muscle weakness and sometimes coma. creates low phosphate levels in the blood (hypophosphatemia), causing muscle weakness and sometimes coma.

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