CPSC pushed for “Shrek” glasses recall after cadmium findings

The AP (10/6, Pritchard) reported, “Federal regulators leaned on McDonald’s to quickly recall 12 million ‘Shrek’-themed drinking glasses this spring because they concluded that a typical 6-year-old could be exposed to hazardous levels of the metal cadmium by touching one of the glasses just eight times in a day, according to documents obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act.” It was “a first-of-its-kind recall for the [CPSC], which wasn’t accustomed to testing for cadmium in glassware and had no official level at which results would represent a health hazard. Yet within a week, McDonald’s had agreed to urge its customers to return all the glasses, even though the fast food giant didn’t think they posed a serious health danger – and the agency thought only one from the set did.”