- Nothing to pay
- No deductions from your compensation
- Access to UK's leading personal injury solicitors
- Excellent claim success rate
- Friendly, supportive and genuine staff
- Impartial legal advice without any cost or commitment
This requires Flash
Lead based paint, product liability claims, and go stones
After the furore and potential product liability claims over lead in the paint on toys from China, I thought the story had run its course. As I am neither young enough to own any new toys nor yet a parent, it was fairly easy for this story to pass me by as much as those on the sports pages.
But, as these things do, suddenly the story managed to make its way into the parts of the world that are directly relevant to me. The product liability issues regarding lead-based paints meant that many things were suddenly being tested for lead, and tester pens to check anything you might own for lead were being sold in general shops.
And on one of the blogs that I regularly read, a man in America learning how to play go tested his playing pieces and the white ones contained lead. As I, too, am learning to play this marvellous game, the story suddenly became more real to me.
I'm not in the happy position of having persuaded anybody to play the game with me in real life yet, so I have only the cheapest of boards and plastic pieces. This means I don't have to worry. The blogger, ChiyoDad, is in a luckier position regarding social matters, but his ability to play go with real people has led to him owning a set of playing pieces (or 'stones') that feel nice and heavy, but have this lead-based paint on them.
It wouldn't be so bad, but the playing pieces look remarkably like sweets - small black and white rounded discs like Skittles or Smarties. It's remarkably tempting, even for an adult, to want to place one of these in your mouth, which could lead to some kind of personal injury related to lead poisoning.
Fortunately, for we UK go players, it seems to be an American problem. Even if it were, though, it wouldn't put me off the game. It's very well fitted to the way I think, and it ties me in to a history that goes back into myth.
There are three games in the world that are both indescribably old and currently played: chess, backgammon and go. Unlike backgammon, there is no element of luck in go. Unlike chess, there is little destruction and removal of pieces in go. It is a game of gradual construction in which you steadily claim as much of the board within your walls as possible.
I like to think that my preference for go marks me as someone who likes creation over destruction, skill over luck, and conversation over argument. It seems to me that the alternating creation of a finished shape, and the aspiration that games should end very closely, makes this inherently civilised. My work in a compensation claim company fades into the background and the stylised play takes over.
Yet that potential product liability claim feels like it's trying to pull my work in to this sphere of play that I've come to love. Fortunately, I've learned to play online - there's thousands of us that gather at the Kiseido Go Server and the virtual stones there are made of light alone. There's very little likelihood of me sucking on lead paint on imaginary stones, so I'm safe there.
But even if there were the potential of getting sucked into some personal injury lawyer's product liability claim, I'd carry on. It might involve buying a beautiful set of stones made of slate and clamshells, but I'd do it. If this article can can encourage some more people to learn the rules - that's a link - I'll be delighted.
