Federal and state watchdogs opened a new
front Monday in the campaign to keep poisons out
of Chinese imports, launching inquiries into
high levels of cadmium in children's jewelry
while Walmart pulled many suspect items from its
store shelves.
A day after The Associated Press documented
the contamination in an investigative report,
the top U.S. consumer safety regulator warned
Asian manufacturers not to substitute other
toxins for lead in children's charm bracelets
and pendants.
Regulators and lawmakers reacted swiftly to
the AP report, which found that some Chinese
manufacturers have been using cadmium, sometimes
at extraordinarily high levels. Congress clamped
down on lead in those products in 2008, but
cadmium is even more harmful. Melissa
Hill, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,
called the AP findings "troubling." She said the
company, which is the world's largest retailer,
had a special responsibility "to take swift
action, and we are doing so."
Members of Congress voiced anger about the
imports. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat,
said he's reviewing the law that regulates such
substances to decide if a fix is needed.
"Parents will be outraged to learn certain
jewelry makers overseas thought they could pull
a fast one at the expense of our kids' safety,"
said Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who
has championed stronger rules for children's
products.
Cadmium, which is known to cause cancer, is a
soft, whitish metal that occurs naturally in
soil. It's perhaps best known as half of
rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries, but also
is used in pigments, electroplating and plastic.
Cadmium is attractive to Chinese manufacturers
because it is cheap and easy to work with. But,
like lead, it can hinder brain development in
the very young, recent research shows.
In Hong Kong, Vincent Tan, the director for
compliance at the Jetta Co., a toy manufacturer,
said he would support a cadmium ban "if
scientific evidence supports that it is leaching
and causing hazards for children."
Companies like Jetta — which has made electronic
and plastic toys for U.S. companies like Hasbro
Inc. and Mattel Inc., but does not produce
children's jewelry — do not use cadmium in
paint. But the metal may be present in alloys it
uses. The company doesn't have much experience
testing for it, said Tan.
In taped remarks to be delivered Tuesday in
Hong Kong, the chairwoman of the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission urged other countries
to ensure that manufacturers do not substitute
cadmium, antimony or barium in place of lead in
children's products. "All of us should be
committed to keeping hazardous or toxic levels
of heavy metals out of ... toys and children's
products," Inez Tenenbaum said in a transcript
of remarks to an international toy safety
conference.
Tenenbaum singled out cadmium for special
vigilance and said: "Voluntary efforts will only
take us so far." The commission
immediately said it was opening an investigation
into the AP's findings, promising to "take
action as quickly as possible to protect the
safety of children."
Connecticut Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal also said Monday that his office
would investigate cadmium content in some
products, particularly costume jewelry.
Blumenthal would not say whether he's
investigating particular merchants. Rather than
"singling out any stores, we're interested in
any retail outlets that sell jewelry that may
have cadmium," he said. New York state
Sen. James S. Alesi said he will introduce
legislation to ban the sale of cadmium in
jewelry in his state. "We must act immediately
to keep this contaminated jewelry out of the
hands of children and reduce their exposure to
toxic substances," said Alesi, a Republican.
Lab tests were conducted for the AP on 103
pieces of low-price children's jewelry such as
charm bracelets and pendants purchased around
the country. Virtually all were imported from
China. Twelve items had cadmium levels of
at least 10 percent by weight. One piece had a
startling 91 percent, and others contained more
than 80 percent. The government has no
restrictions on cadmium in jewelry.
Children can be exposed by sucking or biting
such jewelry. But without direct exposure, most
people do not experience its worst effects:
cancer, kidneys that leak vital protein and
bones that spontaneously snap. The
worrisome results came in tests of bracelet
charms sold at Walmart stores, at the jewelry
chain Claire's and at a Dollar N More store.
High amounts of cadmium also were detected in
"The Princess and The Frog" movie-themed
pendants.
Eighty-nine items were free of cadmium.
U.S.-based trade groups, as well as distributors
and sellers of the jewelry containing cadmium,
said their products meet safety standards.
Cadmium is regulated in painted toys but not in
jewelry.
A cadmium specialist with the Beijing office
of Asian Metal Ltd., a market research and
consultancy firm, said products with cadmium are
normally directed to the Chinese domestic
market. "This is just the latest example
of the need for stronger consumer safety laws in
this country, especially for products
manufactured and marketed for children, and
shows yet again why products from China should
be subject to additional scrutiny," said Rep.
Rosa L. DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat.
"Between children's jewelry, tainted milk and
contaminated pet food, China has a long record
of producing unsafe products, and the U.S.
should continue to be wary of all products
arriving from China." A 2008 law imposed
limits on lead in children's products and sent
factories rushing for substitutes. About the
same time, cadmium prices dropped, in part
because nickel-cadmium batteries are swiftly
being replaced with newer designs.
In her speech, Tenenbaum praised
manufacturers for largely abandoning lead in
their goods. The tests run for the AP found
little lead. The jewelry testing was
conducted by chemistry professor Jeff
Weidenhamer of Ashland University in Ohio, who
over the past few years has provided the
government with results showing high lead
content in products that were later recalled.
His testing of children's jewelry for AP also
showed that some items easily shed cadmium,
elevating concerns about exposure to children.
"Clearly it seems like for a metal as toxic as
cadmium, somebody ought to be watching out to
make sure there aren't high levels in items that
could end up in the hands of kids," Weidenhamer
said.
"There's nothing positive that you can say
about this metal. It's a poison," said Bruce A.
Fowler, a cadmium specialist and toxicologist
with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. On the agency's priority list of 275
most hazardous substances in the environment,
cadmium ranks No. 7.
If the cadmium-laden jewelry were industrial
garbage, it could qualify as hazardous waste.
But since there are no cadmium restrictions on
jewelry, such items are sold legally. The
federal government has never recalled an item
for cadmium, though it has fielded scattered
complaints for at least two years. The CPSC
cited "an upward trend" in reports of products
containing cadmium.
Private-sector testing confirms this. Two
laboratories that analyze more than a thousand
children's products each year checked their data
at AP's request. Both said their findings of
cadmium above 300 parts per million in an item —
the current federal limit for lead — increased
from about 0.5 percent of tests in 2007 to about
2.2 percent of tests in 2009.
However, Sheila A. Millar, a lawyer for the
Fashion Jewelry Trade Association, said members
had not noticed "widespread substitution" with
cadmium. She said jewelry makers these days
often opt for zinc, which is a safer substitute.
Some children's advocates weren't reassured.
"If they're going to substitute one chemical for
another ... they need to have some indications
it's a safe thing to have in a product that a
child is going to use," said Nancy Cowles,
director of Kids in Danger, a Chicago-based
nonprofit that advocates for safety in
children's products. "With cadmium, we've known
for years it's unsafe."
Donn reported from Boston. Associated Press
writers Stephen Singer in Hartford, Conn., and
Rik Stevens in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this
report. The AP National Investigative Team
can be reached at investigate(at)ap.org.
