I-TEAM

I-TEAM: Lead Jewelry

(WCCO) Some of the cheapest trinkets may have a cost greater than anyone ever imagined.  The I-TEAM's Terri Gruca looked into these trinkets, and as result, the federal government is looking closer at vending machine jewelry.

Kara and Todd Burkhart never imagined how much their lives could change when they gave their son Colton a quarter.  

He used it in a vending machine to buy a toy necklace.  

"He had to go through a horrendous, horrifying pain because of something so small," Kara Burkhart said.  

Weeks later, Colton was diagnosed with the flu.  However, his illness continued to worsen.  

"He rolled on the floor and cried and screamed," Kara Burkhart said.  

Colton didn't have the flu.  He had swallowed the pendant of the necklace he purchased in a vending machine with a quarter.  

He had lead poisoning.  His blood lead level was 12 times what's normal.  

"If we hadn't found it at the time, our predictions are he wouldn't be here with us," Kara Burkhart said.  

Dr. Brent Bauer specializes in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.  "If you're exposed to lead as a young child, the consequences of high lead levels can have a real dramatic impact on IQ or cognitive development down the road," he said.  

As result of what happened to Colton, the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled that necklace.  It was 40 percent lead.  However, it didn't test others.  

This made the I-TEAM wonder if there was a bigger problem.  

The I-TEAM visited vending machines across the Twin Cities, collecting jewelry.

Then, the I-TEAM sent 10 samples to a lab in Indiana to be tested for lead.  

EMSL Analytical's results speak for themselves.  Every piece of jewelry contained lead.  

Eight of the pieces had significant amounts of lead.  One gold ring was more than 50 percent lead.  That's more than the pendant Colton swallowed.   

"Knowing there's going to be some children who spend a lot of time with that in their mouth, the potential risk is fairly significant," Bauer said.   

The government limits the amount of lead in a number of things, including soil, water and paint.  Paint can't be more than .06 lead.  That's far less that what the I-TEAM found in nearly all the jewelry tested.  

Hal Stratton is the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.  "We want any product like jewelry to be plated or have it somehow sealed off to where it won't leach and get into the child's system," he said.  

The majority of the jewelry the I-TEAM had tested did leach lead, in amounts that could be poisonous to children.  

That's something the Burkhart's claim companies like L.M. Becker know.  The family is now suing.  

Attorneys for L.M. Becker answered the lawsuit in federal court in Oregon.  The company admits the necklace Colton bought contained lead.

However, the company claims the necklace was not defective.  L.M. Becker says it was not negligent in marketing the necklace.

L.M. Becker does not make this jewelry.  The company imports the jewelry from India and other places.  It then sells the jewelry to distributors in the United States.  

Right now, the government leaves it up to the companies to test the jewelry to make sure it is safe for children.  

The government hasn't been checking.  

It wasn't until after the I-TEAM showed the Consumer Product Safety Commission the results of our tests that the government decided to run its own tests.  

It may be too late for Colton.  He looks like a normal five-year-old on the outside, but no one knows what his 25 cent purchase will cost him in the future.

"Is he going to grow up a normal little boy, or is he going to have difficulties all his life?  We don't know.  They can't answer those questions for us," Kara Burkhart said.  
 
Colton's blood lead levels are still four times what's normal.
   
He must have blood drawn every month and will need to be monitored the rest of his life to make sure there is no damage.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission told the I-TEAM it's still looking at the results of their testing.  It is sending letters to these companies. 
 

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