The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is working on the development of mandatory standards to deal with heavy and toxic metals in children’s products—especially the ones imported from China—and on testing protocols and lab accreditation rules for regulated children’s products.
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In a taped keynote speech that was delivered Jan. 12 to regulators at the APEC Toy Safety Initiative/Dialogue in Hong Kong, CPSC chairman Inez Tenenbaum warned against the use of heavy metals, “especially cadmium,” in children’s products. While praising the removal of lead in children’s products, Tenenbaum encouraged manufactures in China to refrain from substituting cadmium, antimony, or barium in place of lead.
“All of us should be committed to keeping hazardous or toxic levels of heavy metals out of surface coatings and substrates of toys and children’s products,” she says.
Later in the speech, Tenenbaum noted that “Voluntary efforts will only take us so far.”
Tenenbaum’s keynote coincided with a news report from the Associated Press (AP), which reported that 12 of 103 pieces of mainly Chinese-made children’s jewelry sold across the Unites States contained at least 10 percent cadmium. Lab testing organized by the news agency showed that the toxic metal also was present in children’s jewelry, “sometimes at eye-popping levels exceeding 90 percent of the item’s total weight.” The metal is particularly dangerous for children, “because growing bodies readily absorb substances, and cadmium accumulates in the kidneys for decades,” according to the AP.
CPSC staff has opened a formal investigation into children’s metal jewelry identified in a another recent AP news story to determine the action CPSC needs to take to keep children safe.
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart has issued a statement saying that it would immediately remove such items from its shelves. “The findings in this report are troubling and as the world’s largest retailer we have a responsibility to take swift action and we’re doing so. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers and associates. We will actively participate in the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s investigation, along with suppliers and industry associations, to provide any assistance as they determine what the standards should be,” the statement read.
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