Don't buy flip flops (or anything - except Peerless Chain) from Wal-mart!

Our government has to be extra careful on these cheap imports from China, especially food, clothes and foot wear. The Chinese are using some cheap, but very strong chemicals in their manufacturing. Cheap can be expensive, when it causes problems, such as in the following pictures! At the same time, some of these chemicals, may be fatal.

Many products coming out of China are now being recalled due to unsafe materials to make products and keep the budget at a low cost. Lead is MIXED in the paint for toys and here is what happened when a customer bought a pair of flip flops from wal-mart.

In June 2007, Kerry Stiles of Ocklawaha, Florida, purchased a pair of "Sand-N-Sun" flip flops at Wal-Mart. Soon after wearing the sandals (which she donned only a few times), she developed a painful skin rash or chemical burn on her feet that corresponded with the thong portion of her flip-flops.

Stiles' experiences with the fearsome footwear are recounted in full on her web page. She chronicles the development of the injury in a series of photographs spanning the period between June 22 - September 8 (2007).

The flip-flops had been manufactured in China. Others who had bought the same brand of sandals reported experiencing similar problems.

In September 2007, Wal-Mart instructed its stores to stop selling the product until it could conduct its own investigation.

What remains unclear as of this writing is what, precisely, is to blame for the inflammation, which has been variously described by sufferers as a "skin rash" or a "chemical burn." In a statement to Fox News, dermatologist Nanette Silverberg of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York speculated that the irritation is most likely due to an allergic reaction, either to the latex itself or residue from chemicals used to process the rubber. "There are a variety of agents that can do it in flip flops," she said.

Wal-Mart asserts it received only ten complaints about skin irritation related to these flip flops out of seven million pairs sold. The company said in a press release reported upon by a Dallas Texas TV station on September 11 (2007) that: "Product safety is a top priority at Wal-Mart and we are taking this report very seriously. Of several million of this product sold, we have had only a few similar claims. Nonetheless, we are removing the product from our shelves for testing and are preventing our registers from selling them."

However, on September 13, a reporter in Tulsa told of finding a pair of the recalled flip-flops at a Wal-Mart in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Said the reporter: "When we went to the check-out, the computer couldn't scan the price, but the cashier, just trying to be helpful, over-rode the machine and sold them to us."

Stiles challenges Wal-Mart's claim of receiving only ten complaints about the brand of flip-flops that injured her, providing accounts on her web site of others similarly harmed.

CHEMICAL BURNS:

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