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mcDonald's cadmium and lead garfield mug

McDonald's Cadmium and Lead Garfield Mug

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About

Garfield Lead Paint McDonald's Mug refers to a series of painted Garfield glass mugs distributed by McDonald's in the 1980s which contain dangerous amounts of lead and cadmium in the paint coating. In 2022 a blog post raised awareness about the health hazard presented by the mugs, with the product becoming a subject of memes and references.

Origin

On October 11th, 2019, product safety blog Lead Safety Mama[1] posted an entry about promotional Garfield glass mugs distributed by McDonald's in the 1980s. The mugs, which feature Garfield cartoons by artist Jim Davis and are distinguished by the year 1978 printed on them, contain dangerous amounts of lead and cadmium in the paint. Lead, at levels of about 1,000 the allowed limit, can cause brain damage, while cadmium, a known carcinogen, was nearly 150 times the amount considered legal in the state of Washington.


IT'S NOT A PRETTY LIFE BUT SOMEBODY HAS TO LIVE IT m JiM DAVIS 1978 Garfield "It's not a pretty life but somebody has to live it" McDonald's s mug: 99,300 ppm Lead (causes brain damage) + 5,833 ppm Cadmium (causes cancer).

On April 12th, 2022, X[2] user @stumblebee posted a PSA based on the article, warning of dangerous amounts of lead and cadmium contained in the paint. The post (shown below) received over 12,000 reposts and 35,000 likes in two weeks.


Dolly Carton @stumblebee PSA for anybody else who owns these cups!!!!! They have 10000x the legal amount (today) of lead in the paint and CADMIUM TS NOT A PRETTY LIFE BUT SOMEBODY HAS TO LIVE IT N JIM DAVIS 2:43 AM Apr 12, 2022 I : to live it" McDonald's mug: 99,300 ppm Lead (causes brain 1 higher) is considered illegal in the base substrate. This 1978 McDonald's Garfield coffee muga also tested positive for high levels of Cadmium (Cd) in the paint. There is currently no Federal regulatory limit or standard for total XRF-detectable Cadmium in dishware in the United States. Cadmium is

Spread

On April 13th, 2022, Redditor /u/laterment made a Reddit[3] [4] post in /r/tifu about having used the lead-painted mug every day for a long time. The post (shown below) received over 27,000 upvotes in two years. On April 14th, Redditor PlebBot69 posted a screenshot of the /r/tifu post to /r/comedyheaven, where it received over 24,000 upvotes in two years.


JO r/tifu u/laterment 18h 1 IT'S NOT A PRETTY LIFE BUT SOMEBODY HAS TO LIVE IT JIM DAV ā‚¬ 7 TIFU by learning that my favorite cup - the cup that I use every day to drink my morning tea - is causing me brain damage 1 1 4 Join

As these and other posts about the health hazard spread online, the mug achieved popularity as a subject of memes and humorous references. For example, on April 25, 2022, Tumblr[5] user weaver-z posted an I don't believe in that nonsense meme that received over 50,000 likes and reblogs in two years (shown below, left; authorship unconfirmed). On December 31st, 2022, Instagram[6] user @garfigment posted a meme that received over 3,400 likes in eleven months (shown below, right).


Wow Romans kept using lead- lined cookingwear even when they knew it was poison. How could they be so stupid? OMG how convient!!! Kay 1978 Garfield "It's not a pretty life but somebody has to live it" McDonald's mug: 99,300 ppm Lead (causes brain damage) + 5,833 ppm Cadmium (causes cancer). NOT A PRETTY LIFE AUT SOMEBODY STO LIVE IT AD JTM DANS and War 75 NOT A PRETT SOMEBODY TO LIVE IT a BAN OL h4093WOS ONS JP War Wa N SOMEBOR S NOT A PRETTY LIFE GUNING WO NOS 3 J HM 101.9 LON NOT A PRETTY LIFE 10 LIVE IT MEBOPY D JTM Day For ins @garfigment the average person swallows 8 Mcdonald's 1978 cadmium and lead painted glass Garfield mugs in their sleep every year

Various Examples


Whoops: 1984 Garfield "You Should Scrape The Paint Off Of This Mug With Your Teeth" mug found to contain 500,000 times the legal limit of plutonium YOU SHOULD SCRAPE THE PAINT OFF OF THIS MUG WITH YOUR TEETH ā‚¬1304 und Spaiste If nobody got me TS NOT A PRETTY LIFE BUT SOMEBODY 46 TO LIVE IT JIM DAVIS and lead I know 1978 cadmium Garfield mug got me Can i get an AMEN ? off work late? hungry, but too tired to cook? try garfield cadmium and lead painted Mcdonalds mugs ONE WHO THE USE YOUR WISELY MAN THINGS GO MY WAY W TO GET ALONG @garfigment you will certainly not regret eating garfield cadmium and lead painted mugs
have garfield 1978 painted glass mug from mcdonalds THOSE MUGS ARE CANCEROUS THROW IT AWAY those are great if you like the taste of cadmium and lead @garfigment ur gonna get cancer if you drink from those you know those have lead in them right DONT DRINK FROM THOSE THEY ARE TOXIC!!! hey i'm not sure if you know this but those mugs are painted with cadmium and lead and are highly toxic https:// tamararubin.com/ 2019/10/1978-garfield- its-not-a-pretty-life-but- rachel @rachelmillman honestly at this point I feel like the damage is probably done and I'm likely gonna keep drinking out of the lead Garfield mug 9:02 PM Apr 20, 2022

Search Interest

External References

[1] Lead Safe Mama ā€“ 1978 Garfield Mug

[2] X ā€“ @stumblebee

[3] Reddit ā€“ TIFU by learning that my favorite cup ā€“ the cup that I use every day to drink my morning tea ā€“ is causing me brain damage

[4] Reddit ā€“ brain damage

[5] Tumblr ā€“ weaver-z

[6] Instagram ā€“ garfigment

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Top Comments

CrashGordon94
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CrashGordon94

in reply to Commodore V

I think that's the thing with a lot of this, if you're doing it "properly" it should be okay, it's just not allowed because it's catastrophic if it goes wrong.

Like if you're not chipping off/eating the paint I'm guessing it's not doing anything but you shouldn't really make mugs/glasses that give you brain damage if the finish wears off or something.

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