AP Impact: Feds muff kid jewelry cadmium crackdown

Source: AP-Excite

By JUSTIN PRITCHARD

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Federal regulators failed to pursue recalls after they found cadmium-tainted jewelry on store shelves, despite their vow to keep the toxic trinkets out of children's hands, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Officials at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission also have not warned parents about the contaminated items already in their homes.

More than two years after the AP revealed that some Chinese factories were substituting cadmium for banned lead, the CPSC still hasn't determined the extent of the contamination.

Contaminated jewelry is surely less prevalent in the U.S. than before its widespread presence was first documented. However, rings, bracelets and pendants containing cadmium and marketed for preteen girls were purchased over the last year. The AP and representatives of two consumer groups were able to buy the items in Los Angeles, suburban San Francisco, central Ohio and upstate New York.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20121014/DA1TE2Q80.html

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This Oct. 10, 2012, photo shows jewelry containing high levels of the toxic metal cadmium purchased by The Associated Press at small shops in Los Angeles during a 19-month period ending in March 2012. Federal regulators failed to pursue recalls after they found cadmium-tainted jewelry on store shelves, despite their vow to keep such toxic trinkets out of children's hands, an AP investigation shows. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)