<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 <head>
  <title>CSS Tables: Bottom Padding on Inline Children</title>
  <style type="text/css">
   /* reset everything to be sure we don't introduce oddities */
   table { border: 0; border-spacing: 0; padding: 0; margin: 0; line-height: 1; }
   td { border: 0; padding: 0; margin: 0; line-height: 1; }
   span { border: 0; padding: 0; margin: 0; line-height: 1; display: inline; }

   /* the test */
   table { background: red; }
   span.control { background: green; color: white; }
   span.test { padding-bottom: 10em; }
  </style>
 </head>
 <body>
  <table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     <span class="test"><span class="control">There should be no red on this page.</span></span>
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>
 </body>
</html>