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Mar 24, 2006 11:05 am US/Central
I-TEAM: Lead Jewelry Dangers Still Exist
by Terri Gruca
(WCCO)
Ever since the I-TEAM's jewelry investigation two years ago, the government has issued more than a dozen recalls -- pulling nearly 162 million pieces of jewelry from store shelves.
But the Consumer Product Safety Commission says you will still find jewelry with lead being sold in stores.
Lead, if ingested, can lower a child's IQ. The Centers for Disease Control say lead poisoning is the most common and most devastating environmental disease affecting kids.
Two years ago, the I-TEAM bought jewelry from several different retailers, had it tested and found only one piece of jewelry was lead-free. That piece came from Target.
The rest of the jewelry contained more lead than the government considers safe in paint. One necklace was 73 percent lead.
All of the jewelry the I-TEAM tested, except a flip-flop necklace from Claire's Accessories, also leached lead -- which meant if a child were to suck on it or ingest it, it could be poisonous, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
A lead-laced charm is what medical examiners say killed Juanna Graham's 4-year-old son, Jarnell, last month.
The charm was part of a bracelet Reebok sold with certain shoes.
Graham never saw her son put the jewelry in his mouth, but by the time doctors found it in his belly, it was too late.
"It's like a really bad dream to me," Graham said.
Kara Burkhart's son once swallowed a medallion off a necklace, and he still has elevated levels of lead in his blood. He will be monitored by doctors the rest of his life.
Even though the government continues to test jewelry, lead in jewelry is still a problem, according ot Richard Maas, who heads up the Environmental Quality Institute at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.
"Thirty percent on what's on the hand of a child under 7 will be ingested just because of hand to mouth activity," said Maas.
Maas studied nearly 300 pieces of jewelry from more than 20 stores and found the chances you'll buy a piece of jewelry containing a dangerous amount of lead is two out of three.
"We find jewelry pieces ... have a lead plating put on them to make it look like old pewter," Maas said.
The government now requires companies to keep dangerous levels of lead out of jewelry. But because so many products are imported, the testing largely falls on manufacturers.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission does conduct random tests and issues recalls when it finds products that do not meet the new standards.
For now, the government says parents should not have any metallic costume jewelry around if they have young children.
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