HONG KONG: China’s product safety agency will look into findings that dangerous levels of cadmium are being used in exports of children’s jewelry, a Chinese official said Tuesday following growing concern in the United States about the products.
Attending a toy safety conference in Hong Kong, the official said that his agency only just learned of findings in an Associated Press investigation published Sunday and would examine the findings on cadmium contamination.
“We just heard about this, and we will investigate,” said Wang Xin, a director general for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Though Wang does not have the authority to order a full-bore inquiry, his comments were the government’s first on the matter and show China’s nervousness about potential troubles in the US, the biggest Chinese export market.
On Monday, retail giant Walmart pulled products cited in the AP report from its stores in the US The attorney general of Connecticut promised to investigate suspect costume jewelry.
A New York state legislator called for a ban on the sale of children’s jewelry with cadmium in the state. The top US consumer safety regulator warned Asian manufacturers that cadmium and other toxins must be kept out of children’s charm bracelets, pendants and other baubles.
Lab tests conducted for the AP on 103 pieces of low-priced children’s jewelry on sale in the US found 12 items with raised levels of cadmium, which can hinder brain development in young children, according to recent research, and is known to cause cancer.
Twelve items had cadmium levels of at least 10 percent by weight. One piece had a startling 91 percent, and others contained more than 80 percent. The government has no restrictions on cadmium in jewelry.
The findings of cadmium contamination come on the heels of a string of product quality scandals in 2007.
