Tired of broken stomp-switches?

[Thecomedian]

Yep, definitely should specify "Do not add toxic fly ash to drywall in exhorbitant amounts" when drumming up yer QCS for imported drywall....

Well, yes, it should.

If the buyer sampled the drywall, and specified it to meet standards X, Y, and Z that would exclude things like toxic materials, that's one thing, or if the supplier produced a specification that represented that no toxics were used, or that it met whatever standards were involved, that's one thing.

If the specification for what to buy was "send me whatever you have that looks like drywall", that's another thing. If you didn't even ASK for nontoxic stuff in the absence of any expectations...

Let's be clear here: US suppliers don't have all that pristine a record of supplying wholesome, nontoxic and standard-conforming products. For some history, google Upton Sinclair and Jungle. What we do have is a century of trying to eradicate this kind of mess, and punishing the ones who violate our expectations. Where we are demanding the cheapest possible products from a newly-industrialized country with a brand-new generation of robber barons - let's not lay blame unilaterally. It's interesting to google "superfund site" and practically anything about any large industry.

oh, definitely. You know Johnson and Johnson's Talc powder for baby bottoms? Talc contains silica dust, which causes "potters rot", iow, if you breathe too much into the lungs, you eventually end up with breathing problems (think lung cancer).

But they care about your baby, just like the commercial says, right? Also, silica doesn't come out of your body. It's in there for good unless mechanically removed.

The difference here is that there is nothing sinister about this product, and it takes YEARS AND YEARS of exposure to silica dust to develop respiratory problems...

(I can put you in touch with some individuals at NIOSH if you're interested, I am involved in some government studies using HEPA filters in underground mining applications).

Even with Superfund sites, there is nothing more than gross incompetence and lack of common sense regulations involved (usually, there are exceptions of course)...

It's different than CHOOSING to lace a product with poison.....

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/newpetfoodrecalls/

The Chinese have a MASSIVE inferiority complex, a result of being half a century behind their neighbors in Japan, South Korea (and 100 years behind the West of course)....

So desperate to prove themselves that they will not hesitate to shoot themselves in the foot....

You just aren't seeing these types of problems in other developing economies in Indonesia, India, Vietnam, etc.

Oh, and my price point for the footswitch listed above would be between $0.40 and $0.50.  Unless the Yuan were allowed to float against the dollar and traded in a free market, not set by the Chinese government.  Then I would be willing to pay around $4-$5.....

aluminum silicate has a similar toxicity as asbestos. Sounds like choosing to put a poison in a product to me. Also, I think you and I may have different opinions of what that years and years of exposure is. IF you keep all surfaces wet to prevent dust, and dont do something stupid with silica, it's fine. If you allow dust to fly freely and dont even have a paper mask on, you're going to develop symptoms extremely quick.

remember, you're breathing the main component of GLASS into your body.

Not to derail a thread, I would imagine you could fabricate your own stomp pedals that would work indefinitely if you are a practiced metal worker with the right equipment at home. Im not sure who really needs that much longevity though.

[J0K3RX]

Dudes really!? All this over a switch? Here's an idea, don't buy it or anything you think might contain horse meat, aluminum silicate, toxic melamine, Fly ash, sulfurous gas, radioactive particles or Plutonium 238 dust in it... By the way, I personally don't have a problem with horse meat! Cow, horse, moose, deer, elk, freshly clubbed baby seal etc.. All on my "MEAT TO EAT" list!

Make your own switches, then you can truly say "hand made"... Build a DIY 3D printer and print plastic models of switches, enclosures then use them as molds to forge them out of iron and steel!   Then you can make some knobs, jacks, refrigerator magnets, action figures, pleasure toys, crack pipes and so much more...  

Remember "Necessity is the mother of invention."    

[Jdansti]

See what you started, PRR!!! 

[J0K3RX]

See what you started, PRR!!! 

I'm just being a jack@ass... Nothing new Just J0KIN! 

[Jdansti]

See what you started, PRR!!! 

I'm just being a jack@ass... Nothing new Just J0KIN! 

We know that and we know that... 

By the way, you wouldn't happen to own a melamine plant in China would you? 

[J0K3RX]

See what you started, PRR!!! 

I'm just being a jack@ass... Nothing new Just J0KIN! 

We know that and we know that... 

By the way, you wouldn't happen to own a melamine plant in China would you? 

No, I don't own a melamine plant in China but I think I dated a Chinese girl named Melamine years ago...

[Jdansti]

^