I have a former co-worker/friend of mine who lives today in the US and who grew up in Hong Kong. And he has told me quite a few horror stories of what some factories in China are like. Environmental controls for the safety of the workers are a relatively new thing there and quite often, he's said, they will cut corners in the materials that go into the products that they produce.

So, it's not only the labor that is cheap there but, in some cases, they do whatever they can to minimize costs...no matter what effects those products my have on the end-user of those products...or the safety concerns of the workers who produce such products.

What we are seeing might only be the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.