Lead in Toy Jewelry
This page describes actions that relate to lead in
children's products. The page also provides links to information from
the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that can help you
protect your children against the hazard, including a list of products
recalled because of lead content. BackgroundLead is a highly toxic metal that was used for many years in products
found in and around our homes. Lead may cause a range of health
effects from behavioral problems and learning disabilities to seizures
and death. Children six years old and under are most at risk because
their bodies are growing quickly. When a child puts an object containing lead in his or her mouth, the child
can suffer from lead poisoning. For example, in 2003, a child became
lead-poisoned from ingesting toy jewelry from a vending machine. On
July 8, 2004, the threat of lead poisoning from toy jewelry
led the
CPSC to conduct a voluntary recall of 150 million pieces of metal toy
jewelry sold widely in vending machines. Unfortunately, another
incident occurred in 2006, when a child died from ingesting a toy
charm containing lead. This incident prompted the voluntary recall
of 300,000 charm bracelets. The charm and metal bracelets were given
as free gifts with the purchase of shoes from one manufacturer.
Toy jewelry containing unsafe levels of lead has continued to be
sold even after CPSC issued guidance to prevent the sale of these
products. In addition to toy jewelry products containing lead, other
products containing lead have been recalled, such as crayons, chalk
and clothing. For a list of recalls, including recalls for products
containing lead, visit CPSC's
Toy
Hazards Recall Listing. Recent ActionsOn April 21, 2006, the Sierra Club submitted a petition to EPA and CPSC to take certain actions regarding lead in children's products. EPA denied two of Sierra Club's requests in July 2006, and Sierra Club filed a lawsuit challenging that denial in September 2006. On April 13, 2007, EPA and Sierra Club reached a settlement. Under the settlement, EPA agreed to take certain actions that would complement other actions by EPA and its federal and state partners to protect children from lead exposure. These actions are designed to contribute to the federal goal of eliminating childhood lead poisoning by 2010. Under the settlement, EPA agreed to:
On April 30, 2007, EPA sent a
letter to CPSC, describing its continuing concerns about the presence of
lead in children's products. EPA also sent letters
to 120 companies,
alerting them to requirements under TSCA section 8(e):
Recipients of the letter were either a party to a settlement with the State of California regarding lead in toy jewelry or were participants in a recall of children's products containing lead. In response to the Sierra Club's petition, CPSC published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to ban children's jewelry containing more than 0.06% lead. On August 2, 2007, CPSC issued a press release announcing the Fisher-Price recall of 967,000 toys due to lead poisoning hazard. On January 29, 2008, EPA issued a final rule under Section 8(d) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) adding lead and lead compounds to the TSCA health and safety data reporting requirements. This rule required certain manufacturers (i.e., under the rule, manufacturers of consumer products intended for use by children who also manufacture lead or lead compounds) to submit to EPA by April 28, 2008, any unpublished health and safety studies that relate to the lead content of consumer products that are intended for use by children or that assess children's exposure to lead from such products, excluding children's metal jewelry. The import of children's products that contain lead or lead compounds constitutes the manufacture of lead or lead compounds under TSCA, and EPA believes importers of such products are the entities most likely to have the type of health and safety studies EPA is seeking. EPA will review the submitted health and safety data and will consult with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), where appropriate, to address any concerns identified by the data with respect to lead-containing products. Already, CPSC is working to address recently discovered risks from children's metal jewelry containing lead. EPA's rule is directed at children's products other than metal toy jewelry, for which less lead exposure information is available. CPSC has evaluated whether commercially available lead test kits reliably and accurately detect the presence or absence of lead in consumer products, such as toy jewelry and children's vinyl toys. Based on this evaluation, CPSC does not recommend that these test kits be used for consumer products. CPSC's analysis was specific to consumer products and was not conducted on lead-based paint used in housing. Research on the use of these kits for testing lead in paint used in housing has been conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST found that the test kits currently available do reliably detect the absence of lead-based paint. EPA believes that these kits are effective at ruling out whether lead-based paint is present. However, the kits may be overly sensitive and will indicate the presence of lead-based paint even at levels below the Federal standards. EPA is currently developing improved test kits. More Information
|