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Health safety of Chinese cubes?

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Tempus

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Everyday we touch chinese products. Almost every thing we touch is from China. So cubes won't be a problem.
Exactly. It seems ironic that people are arguing over the safety of handling Chinese plastic in a venue where everyone (who isn't using a touchscreen) is typing their arguments on a keyboard made of Chinese plastic.
 
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Kirjava

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I'd be nice if you didn't go all out scare mongering; there's no reason to believe there are any health risks associated with cubes.

Your tone is very alarmist.
 

Dane man

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We use plastic everyday. And it's not the plastic that is considered harmful through absorption, it's paint (which at least my cubes don't have). Nothing has happened to anyone until now because of the plastic unless they put it in their hot water and drank it, or burned it and inhaled the smoke. And plastic is toxic when ingested regardless of type because it's oil based. The biggest risk we run isn't simply touching our cubes, but inhaling the natural powder lube that results from frequent use, which isn't a lot. I see no reason to worry as most everything is made of plastic from china, especially the really really cheap stuff like our keyboards, mouses, chairs, monitors, cellphone casings, and basically ever other plastic thing we use and touch on a daily basis. The risk is so small from our cubes that there are other health issues that we should worry about much more than the plastic from china, such as our own eating habits, washing our hands, taking showers every day, etc.

All in all, while there might be a tiny risk of there actually being something in one of our cubes, it's not something we need to freak out over or worry about. So, don't worry about it, we'll be fine. :)
 

Dane man

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so in other words I'm probably not the smartest human being for fully modding a 5x5 with a dremel and no face mask? Much dust was inhaled.
Nothings probably gonna happen if it hasn't already. Though, I would recommend using a face mask while modding anything made of plastic that way. lol.
 

Artic

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I don't know why a lot of you are excusing the possible harmful nature of Chinese made cubes. The fact remains that 99% of American and Western made toys contain safe plastics free of toxic or harmful paints and metals. Products made by American companies in China like Apple etc undergo safety checks to ensure they are safe. However, small to mid size companies refuse or decide not to clean their products to increase profit, which is why so many Chinese made toys are unsafe.

It has been shown time and time again that Chinese made toys contain toxic materials that cause serious health issues. Please read the articles I linked as they contain examples and studies showing exactly how damaging the materials in these toys can be. A lot of you seem to be brushing it off as insignificant or treating this subject lightly. The heavy metals present in some of these toys are known to be carcinogenic, cause brain/neural and birth abnormalities and defects, and lead to serious lifelong health issues. Yes, most of you will not feel these effects immediately. That's because these are health issues that slowly develop over time. It might be 10 years before they become apparent. If you have younger siblings, infants in your family, pregnant relatives, they will affect them much more seriously quicker. Personally I don't want anyone else in my family getting sick over unsafe toys.

All I'm asking for is information or for a representative of Moyu, Dayan, Shengshou to confirm that their products are safe. If they have nothing to hide and their products are safe, this should be a simple and easy thing to do. Or if someone else has any information, please post it. I know there are several concerned people on this site in addition to myself.
 

rowan

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If this was your concern, maybe your first step should have been emailing the companies that manufacture your cubes instead of posting on an unrelated forum. Maybe if they didn't respond, you could have brought this to the forum. You are making a lot of assumptions based of the previous history of unrelated companies and providing no evidence for your claims.
 
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Dane man

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...anyone else in my family...
Has someone in your family gotten sick because of the toxic chemicals in toys? Is this the motivation behind your posts?

Also, there is no such thing as plastic that is free of toxic chemicals, paints, metals. It's just that some are more harmful than others. And the statistics you provided do not match the statistics you claim. Only 1/3 of Chinese produced toys contain traces of toxic materials, and most of the chemically toxic ones are only sold internally to China according to your references (which are quite old, and from sources known to exaggerate and skew information). And there are very very few American made toys, most of our toys today come from China. If I were to worry about the toxic chemicals in China produced products, I'd worry about all of them, not just puzzle cubes.

And no, we are not excusing bad things. Bad things should never be excused, but we are simply saying that it is not as bad as all the other bad things that we should really be worrying about, and there's a lot to worry about that affects our health much much more than the plastic used in our toys (like the toxic chemicals in the food we eat). Please understand, if there is a problem, we'd like to see it fixed, but we're not going to get all worked up about it until a problem shows up.

You can ask them (Moyu, Dayan, etc) what plastics they use in their products. I'm sure they'll be happy to respond. And if they do have something bad in them, we can ask them to choose a cleaner plastic, and I'm sure they'd happily oblige because they want our business.
 
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waffle=ijm

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IEDIT: It appears that Waffle's post has been removed though it is quite relevant to this discussion. The point was that the amount of poison changes the need for worry. I.E. small amounts of arsenic won't kill you or even have adverse effects, but in large amounts you're as good as dead.

If the mods saw my post as irrelevant then I'm not as clever in my posting than I thought and the removal of my post was reasonable and I have no reason to fight against them. Though this is the point I was trying to make with fewer words. Perhaps this reworded version will be more appealing.

Literally everything we eat and touch is poisonous*.

*-amount varies
 

DeeDubb

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so in other words I'm probably not the smartest human being for fully modding a 5x5 with a dremel and no face mask? Much dust was inhaled.

What about modding a cube and breathing in the plastic?

The reason I posted this was because I actually modded my SS 6x6 the night before this thread started, so it freaked me out a bit. After more research, I think I'll be ok, but in future mods, I'll try to be more careful. There's no reason to take a health risk for a hobby like cubing.
 

Tony Fisher

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In order for a puzzle to be legally sold in certain parts of the world they have to pass safety tests in different regions (USA, Europe etc). That includes the puzzle, packaging and even labels on the packaging. I know of a puzzle that was recently sold in Europe that had not been tested and cleared for sale in the USA so was not allowed to be sold there. It then later turned out that a label on the packaging had not even been tested and passed in Europe so the puzzle had to be temporarily withdrawn. These kind of things are treated very seriously these days though I suspect in reality there is little danger unless you chewed on your puzzles every day of your life.
Regarding the dangers of modding puzzles, after over 30 years it hasn't affected me at all and regarding the dangers of modding puzzles, it hasn't affected me at all and regarding the dangers of modding puzzles, it hasn't affected me at all and regarding the dangers of modding puzzles, it hasn't affected me at all.
 

Cubenovice

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Why do you keep hammering on Chinese cubes?
Why not ask the same about Rubiks?

Plastic goods, and toys in particular, are subjected to lots and lots of regulatory testing before you may sell / export them.
Occasionally one may slip under the radar but even then they are still caught once near (or just on) the market.

ABS does not contain BPA
PVC does not contain BPA
PC (polycarbonate) does contain BPA and transparent cubes are typically made of this
Some cubes in PC / ABS blend have been made but the standard material is still ABS (cheaper and better cube properties anyway)

The BPA levels in PC are very low and the typical "BPA-concern" concerns food storage containers, in particular baby bottles.
There you heat instant-formula in contact with BPA containing plastic and some BPA may leach out.
Fun fact: the epoxy coating inside tin cans (also the formula cans...) contains much higher BPA levels than PC.

Really, there is lot you should worry more about than cube plastic.

If you're really worried about plastic safety better stay away from all the electronic devices:
They are full of PC and flame retardants. And do you know how many germs live on keyboards and phones?
 

Makarov

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I'm pretty sure all my collector's statues for video games are filled with more lead paint than my cubes :p Since I don't have kids I'm not too worried about it. I did throw one statue out because it smelled up the room toxic though.

While I'm not worried about it, I don't see how it is a bad thing to establish the health safety of puzzles. Do they really conduct safety tests on cubes sold online, or just those sold in retail stores? I'm not sure. I would like to believe they would. But if we assumed everything companies were producing for us was safe, we'd never know for sure. I do believe you're more likely to get a response from a company as a thread of curious people than just as a single person emailing them. So as long as it isn't alarmist I feel like this is a good topic.
 
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Johnny

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Unless a study comes out saying that YJ or ShengShou or Dayan uses unsafe plastic, I think the risk is relatively low. After all, these plastics are only unsafe in extreme conditions such as extreme heat. Other than that, they're generally safe.

I also suspect that cubes are a big-business operation contrary to what the companies portray. I don't have the facts but I would doubt that YJ or Dayan or ShengShou is a tiny little company located in some tiny little town in China.
 
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