U.S. to let private sector set limits for cadmium in children’s products
Federal regulators said on Tuesday that they will back voluntary standards set by the private sector to determine a safe level for cadmium, a known carcinogen, in children’s jewelry.
Officials with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have said for months that the agency was working on new cadmium standards to address concerns about the heavy metal in consumer products, including children’s jewelry.
On Tuesday, safety commission Chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum announced that the agency simply would provide new scientific research on cadmium to ASTM International in hopes that the standard-setting organization will use it to set limits for cadmium in children’s jewelry and toys.
Cadmium can damage kidneys, lungs and bones. The soft metal is used in paint pigmentation and batteries. It’s also in fertilizers, which means it ends up in soil and whatever grows in that soil. Humans ingest most cadmium through their diets, especially from eating leafy greens.
Health officials and scientists worry about cadmium building up in the body over time and want to limit unnecessary exposure to the metal.
The metal has most recently sparked concern after extremely high levels were found in children’s jewelry. There is no federal limit for cadmium in those products, only a standard for cadmium in the paint and coating on toys.
On Tuesday, Tenenbaum announced that the agency had decided on “acceptable daily intake levels” of cadmium, which the standards organization should use to establish limits that protect children, she said.
Those levels — 0.1 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day for chronic exposure, and 11 micrograms for acute exposure — are about the same as the levels considered safe by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission also said new standards should take into account the effect a product would have on a child if some part of it were swallowed and ingested for 24 hours.
Len Morrissey, a director with ASTM International, said the group’s toy committee will discuss a new cadmium standard in November. The committee that is responsible for children’s jewelry probably will not have a new standard for six months to a year, he said.
Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said that by law the agency must allow the voluntary standard-setting organization to develop a new standard.
