baltimore to ban lead-tainted jewelry
more proof you can't be too paranoid about lead.
City plans to ban tainted jewelry
U.S. fails to protect children from lead, health chief says
By Chris Emery
Sun reporter
Originally published August 15, 2006
Declaring that the federal government has failed to protect children from lead, Baltimore's health commissioner has announced plans for a citywide ban on the sale of jewelry found to contain dangerous levels of the metal.
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the commissioner, said that this month his agency surveyed six sellers of jewelry made for children and found four of 17 products had unacceptably high amounts of lead.
"The fact that we keep finding lead in these products, despite the fact that it's unsafe, is a clear sign that the federal regulation has failed," he said yesterday at a news conference.
Federal officials agree that there's a national problem but say they've taken strong steps to curb it. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has negotiated voluntary recalls with a number of companies. In March, for example, Reebok International Ltd. of Canton, Mass., agreed to withdraw from the market 300,000 heart-shaped charm bracelets distributed as gifts with the purchase of certain shoes.
Reebok, according to the commission, received a report of a lead poisoning death of a 4-year-old from Minneapolis who swallowed a piece of a bracelet. It was that report, Sharfstein said, that caused him to take action.
Among the suspect pieces of jewelry identified by the health department was a pearl ring, purchased as part of a three-piece "Princess Collection" set from a Claire's store in the Inner Harbor. It contained more than 100 times the level of lead acceptable under federal regulations.
Another ring, decorated with hearts and purchased as part of a "Girl Connection" jewelry set from a Port Covington Wal-Mart, contained six times the acceptable lead amount. Testing also showed high lead levels in two other rings purchased at Claire's stores in the city.
The federal limit is 600 parts per million of lead. Young children who mouth or swallow jewelry containing high levels of lead can suffer brain damage or even death, Sharfstein said.
Parents of children under 6 years old who suck on their fingers or like to put things in their mouths should be especially cautious about what jewelry they let their kids wear, experts said.
...
Claire's removed the pearl ring from its Baltimore stores after the high lead levels were discovered, according to Merissa Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the corporation, which has 31 stores in Maryland and mor e than 2,000 stores nationwide.
Jacobs said the rings are still being sold in Claire's stores elsewhere in Maryland and around the country, pending in-house lead testing of the product by the company. "We don't have anything that tells us there is a danger with this product," she said.
She characterized the chance of the jewelry injuring a child as a "remote possibility."
...
City plans to ban tainted jewelry
U.S. fails to protect children from lead, health chief says
By Chris Emery
Sun reporter
Originally published August 15, 2006
Declaring that the federal government has failed to protect children from lead, Baltimore's health commissioner has announced plans for a citywide ban on the sale of jewelry found to contain dangerous levels of the metal.
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the commissioner, said that this month his agency surveyed six sellers of jewelry made for children and found four of 17 products had unacceptably high amounts of lead.
"The fact that we keep finding lead in these products, despite the fact that it's unsafe, is a clear sign that the federal regulation has failed," he said yesterday at a news conference.
Federal officials agree that there's a national problem but say they've taken strong steps to curb it. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has negotiated voluntary recalls with a number of companies. In March, for example, Reebok International Ltd. of Canton, Mass., agreed to withdraw from the market 300,000 heart-shaped charm bracelets distributed as gifts with the purchase of certain shoes.
Reebok, according to the commission, received a report of a lead poisoning death of a 4-year-old from Minneapolis who swallowed a piece of a bracelet. It was that report, Sharfstein said, that caused him to take action.
Among the suspect pieces of jewelry identified by the health department was a pearl ring, purchased as part of a three-piece "Princess Collection" set from a Claire's store in the Inner Harbor. It contained more than 100 times the level of lead acceptable under federal regulations.
Another ring, decorated with hearts and purchased as part of a "Girl Connection" jewelry set from a Port Covington Wal-Mart, contained six times the acceptable lead amount. Testing also showed high lead levels in two other rings purchased at Claire's stores in the city.
The federal limit is 600 parts per million of lead. Young children who mouth or swallow jewelry containing high levels of lead can suffer brain damage or even death, Sharfstein said.
Parents of children under 6 years old who suck on their fingers or like to put things in their mouths should be especially cautious about what jewelry they let their kids wear, experts said.
...
Claire's removed the pearl ring from its Baltimore stores after the high lead levels were discovered, according to Merissa Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the corporation, which has 31 stores in Maryland and mor e than 2,000 stores nationwide.
Jacobs said the rings are still being sold in Claire's stores elsewhere in Maryland and around the country, pending in-house lead testing of the product by the company. "We don't have anything that tells us there is a danger with this product," she said.
She characterized the chance of the jewelry injuring a child as a "remote possibility."
...
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