February 16, 2010

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By Michael Gale

The only situation more unfair than “guilty until proven innocent” is “guilty with no chance to be proven innocent.” This is where the children’s jewelry industry finds itself today.

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The companies that comprise the Fashion Jewelry and Accessory Trade Association began 2010 with great hope. Our companies have worked tirelessly to ensure their products meet all applicable federal safety standards under the rigorous and often confusing Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). After coping with some of the most challenging economic times in memory in 2009, spending many millions of dollars in testing, and destroying inventory due to the retroactive nature of the new lead limits and failure to grant an exemption for crystal, jewelry suppliers and retailers were looking forward to a 2010 focused solely on making safe products that bring joy to millions of children and adults every day.

Then on January 10, an Associated Press story falsely accused the children’s jewelry industry of widely substituting cadmium for lead in their products. This one story – based on data from a professor at Ohio’s Ashland University that to this day has never been published or shared with the industry, including the very companies it accused by name – started a snowball effect:

• While the jewelry industry immediately advised the CPSC staff that it was looking into the reports, but that data from members indicated that cadmium levels were typically very low, it was unfortunate that CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum immediately made the sweeping statement to “not allow young children to be given or to play with cheap metal jewelry, especially when they are unsupervised.”


• Members of Congress and state legislators rushed to announce legislation to ban cadmium and other metals in children’s products.


• Retailers began pulling products off their shelves, demanding proof that they were “cadmium free.”


• The California-based Center for Environmental Health, which makes a living suing companies under the state’s Prop 65 law, jumped into the act next, accusing several retailers and suppliers of selling jewelry with high levels of cadmium and beginning its process for extracting money from these companies. CEH refuses to share its data with those it accuses.


• CPSC announced a voluntary recall by FAF on January 29. Again, written test data was not shared with the company, who had extensively tested the products and found that they met the only existing standards for migratable cadmium, a European standard.

Together, these events have created an atmosphere in which it is almost impossible for our member companies to conduct business, accused of violating standards that do not exist and creating health risks to children although no injuries have ever been reported, and called to respond to test data that no one but the accusers ever gets to see.

It’s time we all catch our collective breath and refocus our product safety regime on sound science. In other words, let’s get back to the facts: Our products are safe for all consumers, including children. Our industry has an unequivocal commitment to safety and quality -- its own viability depends on it.

The assertion that cadmium is widely used as a substitute for lead in jewelry is simply false. Many members of the Fashion Jewelry and Accessory Trade Association switched to zinc in order to meet CPSIA lead standards. Cadmium is associated with zinc in nature, and can be present in small, trace amounts in zinc, consistent with recognized third-party standards for zinc alloys. Many members have tested products and find total cadmium content is low; others test for compliance with the migratable heavy metals standards for substances like cadmium required of toys in the EU and find that they pass with very low migratable amounts.

For years, many of our members have routinely tested products for heavy metals. Available data indicates that children’s jewelry does not contain levels of cadmium that could cause health risks. If there are isolated cases where a violation is found, CPSC should follow established processes to work with that company to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, our members are rigorously investigating the situation with suppliers and conducting their own tests for cadmium compliance with international safety standards.

Lost in the media frenzy is the fact that there have been no reported injuries or incidences of elevated cadmium levels in children or adults caused by cadmium in jewelry. Noted health experts are surprised at the frenzy the AP report created in Washington. An article published in the Washington Post on January 14 quotes John Rosen, chief of environmental sciences at the Children's Hospital in New York: "Very little is known about cadmium's potential health effects on children because it's never been known to be a problem. Pediatricians don't look for it, they aren't knowledgeable about it, and there are not any particular concerns about it….If cadmium does have an effect on children through [exposure to cadmium-containing jewelry], it would be kidney disease, which would constitute virtually a new disease in American children."

It is impossible to conduct business when any media outlet or self-appointed consumer group can simply announce it found a “high level” of something it our products and spark a national outcry without any regard to facts, science or actual risk to consumers.

It’s time to create a national standard for heavy metals in jewelry to put an end to the cottage industry of playing “gotcha” with the jewelry industry, which does nothing to improve product safety while ushering in the destruction of hundreds of small and medium sized businesses who wake up each day wondering what they will be accused of next.

For this reason, my association has formed a Safety Task Force with, retail and industry groups, and expert toxicologists and metallurgists to develop a robust, science-based national standard for all metals in children's jewelry, including cadmium, that builds on our members' long-standing heavy metal testing protocol. Let’s get back to focusing on ensuring the safety of products. Science, not the news media, must be the means by which we assess the safety of our products.

Michael Gale is Executive Director of the Fashion Jewelry and Accessory Trade Association. Based in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, the Association represents producers, suppliers and retailers of fashion jewelry. Its 200+ members strongly support safe jewelry for all consumers and advocate the adoption of risk-based standards that assure safety and maintain business competitiveness. Reach him at (401) 295-4564, ftja@aol.com