July 1, 2010
Products found to contain levels of lead are subject to recall, but sometimes they don't get removed from store shelves. In California, stores are being urged to check their inventories closely.
California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. has issued a consumer alert warning of a "serious health hazard" after he demanded that retail stores Rainbow and 5-7-9 remove from their shelves jewelry with parts containing as much as 97 percent lead, a potentially fatal health hazard -- especially for young children.
"This jewelry represents a serious health hazard," Brown said, "and it is especially dangerous if a child gets a hold of it and puts it in his or her mouth. Some of these bangles are almost solid lead. The jewelry must be banished from retailers' shelves once and for all."
Some pieces of the lead-infested jewelry were labeled "KIDS" and one piece was marked "lead free" although its clasp contained more than 80 percent lead. Consumers are at a disadvantage since labels never reveal lead content and it's impossible to tell by examining a product whether it contains lead.
There is no safe level of lead exposure. In 2006, a four-year-old Minnesota boy died after he swallowed a pendant from jewelry that was more than 90 percent lead, and it became stuck in his intestinal tract.
Warning
In a letter to the stores' corporate parent, Rainbow Apparel, Brown said some of the jewelry had components that would be highly toxic, and potentially lethal, if ingested, and all of it contains sufficient lead to contribute to long-term health risks.
California law bans the sale of jewelry that fails to comply with strict limits on the amount of lead it contains. The law was the result of a 2006 settlement of a lawsuit brought by the attorney general and two environmental groups, Center of Environmental Health and As You Sow.
In that settlement, Rainbow and other retailers agreed to stop selling jewelry containing more than traces of lead. But four times in a little more than a year, the AG has sent notices of violation to Rainbow for breaking the law and the terms of the settlement by selling jewelry made of lead.
