No to lead in kids' jewellery

The United States should ban children's jewellery that contains lead, says the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), an independent federal regulator responsible for overseeing the safety of consumer products.

The CPSC staff said Tuesday that the commission should prohibit the manufacture, sale and importation of toy jewellery that contains more than .06 percent lead by weight, the Associated Press reported.

Currently, most children's products with more than .06 percent lead are only subject to a recall. By prohibiting toy jewellery with that much lead, the CPSC could fine companies that knowingly make, sell, or import such products, said CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson.

"The goal is to make the marketplace safer when it comes to children's jewellery by having a simpler policy for companies in their manufacturing and CPSC in assessing safe from dangerous," Wolfson said.

He said lead paint in older homes is still the leading lead danger for children but the threat from toy jewellery has become a major issue in recent years. In 2004, the CPSC issued a recall for 150 million pieces of children's jewellery with unsafe lead levels. It was the largest recall in the commission's history, the AP reported. – (HealthDayNews)

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December 2006