Bid to Root Out Lead Trinkets Falters in U.S.

Bid to Root Out Lead Trinkets Falters in U.S.

By ERIC LIPTON and LOUISE STORY
Published: August 6, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 — Despite a two-year effort to eliminate the threat of poisonous lead in inexpensive children’s jewelry, hundreds of thousands of tainted items are still being sold across the United States, the federal government has found.

Inspections by the Consumer Product Safety Commission of 85 pieces of jewelry collected since last fall from retailers and importers determined that 20 percent still posed a potential poisoning hazard. Separate surveys by health officials or lead experts in Ohio, Massachusetts and Maryland found even higher percentages.

The unannounced federal inspections also left no doubt about the primary source of the threat: of the 17.9 million pieces of jewelry items pulled from the market since the start of 2005, 95 percent were made in China.

Numerous hazardous products imported from China — including toxic ingredients put into dog food, tainted toothpaste, faulty tires and toys coated in lead paint — have been recalled. But the problem with the children’s jewelry, persisting after two years, reveals just how difficult it may be to resolve such problems.

Federal officials said that they had made progress in curtailing the lead threat in children’s jewelry, but that they needed more enforcement powers, like the ability to impose fines or even criminal charges against repeat offenders. Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the consumer safety commission, said, “We want to get to a point of not having to do recall after recall, and simply make the marketplace safe.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/business/06toys.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1186374413-Yolb4qlhT0CMq6WMXS+Qaw&oref=slogin

Better to do without all the trinkets and junk than to pay them good money to make us sick.