Paywall free link: https://archive.ph/6YIDb

Sellers on Amazon and TikTok Shop have sold jewellery containing illegal amounts of a cancer-causing metal, an investigation by The Sunday Times has found. Items have been sold on the marketplaces containing large amounts of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal that is carcinogenic. The legal limit for this element in the UK is 0.01 per cent in any piece of jewellery. One £2.99 ring bought on Amazon that was advertised as 925 silver contained more than 9,000 times the maximum allowance and was estimated to be made of 92.3 per cent cadmium.

all 21 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 40 points 1 month ago

Stop buying from Amazon. They're barely only a step above Temu

  • source
  • [–] 38 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Jayne Bond, a consultant in the jewellery industry, ordered a £2.99 ring on Amazon marked “925 silver”, sold by a brand called The Construction People. Independent testing of the ring showed that it was made up of approximately 92.3 per cent cadmium.

    Bond claimed Amazon was notified of this on May 12 but the item remained on sale. Bond re-purchased the item weeks later on July 1 with similar results in its cadmium content. One reviewer on the site said the ring gave them a “severe allergic reaction” that needed medical treatment. The ring has now been removed from Amazon’s UK site.

    An online customer review for a ring, stating it was falsely advertised as sterling silver and caused an allergic reaction. “If people are reporting the problems, why are [Amazon] not looking at their own reviews that these things are damaging people? It’s neglect,” Bond said.

    Don't buy things from Amazon. They'd rather kill their customers than miss a dollar.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [+] 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago

    Perhaps that is the point. It's a bit dark and a bit paranoid, but once AI can manufacture the basics, 90% of us aren't "needed" anymore. Maybe that's why they don't care about climate change or the cost of living. The age of AI utopia they envision is meant only for those of a certain social standing so if the herd gets thinned they won't have to figure out what to do with us later.

    That's a lot of doomerism, but god damn, poisoning your customers with poisonous jewelry used to be the domain of wicked magicians and fantasy novels, now it's happening on an industrial scale.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 35 points 1 month ago

    Good job on purifying it to those levels

    But fuck me that is some toxic shit and where I live we have a high background level because of prolonged dairy farming and the use of superphosphate

  • source
  • [–] 20 points 1 month ago

    Containing cadmium is bad enough. But "made off" is a new level of evil.

  • source
  • [–] 13 points 1 month ago

    Buying on Amazon is basically the same as buying from a sketchy street-corner seller, except without the benefit to the local economy.

  • source
  • [–] 13 points 1 month ago

    Amazon and Etsy don't check what people are selling. There are people selling resin poured into a mold and colored to look like super rare crystals for anywhere from $50 to $10k+

  • source
  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago

    I assume everything made of silver isnt actually silver.

  • source
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago

    Frightening

  • source
  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    If you think you're getting a sterling silver ring for three quid then there's something wrong with you

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Isn't cadmium flammable? That might be a quick test. Just don't breath the fumes or come in contact with the fumes.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    A very cursory websearch seems to say it's generally only flammable when in powdered form

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    I'm sorry, what? Living in Denmark makes it very easy to not use Amazon, and I haven't used them in a decade, but this? Holy shit, that's bad. The future is looking bleaker and bleaker. I'm glad I don't have children!

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Now we know where to get cadmium from.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments