This Makes No Sense at All

AP is reporting that cadmium, an extremely toxic and dangerous metal, has been used to replace lead in children's toys manufactured and exported from China. Cadmium is more dangerous than lead. Cadmium is more expensive than zinc (as best as I can tell; the question is not as straight-forward as one might think), the metal of choice, and is, in fact, primarily a by-product of mining and smelting zinc. Yet the high-end values of the toys tested were in the range of 84 to 89 percent cadmium in composition, according to the article, and 12 out of 103 items tested had 10 percent or more.

WTF, China?
Followup, Jan. 11: According to an updated article in OregonLive,

Inez Tenenbaum, chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in taped remarks to be delivered Tuesday in Hong Kong that her agency would be strenuously guarding against attempts to swap one health hazard for another, now that lead is barred under U.S. law in children's toys and jewelry.

"I would highly encourage all of you to ensure that toy manufacturers and children's product manufacturers in your country are not substituting cadmium, antimony, barium, in place of lead."

We'll see. If they have to stop using cadmium, antimony or barium, they'll probably turn to depleted uranium,