Uncategorized « Know what is in your environment

September 10, 2010

Testing is still finding lead and cadmium in children’s products.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: cadmium, Children's Jewelry, consumer reports, CPSIA, Essco - Safety Check, lead, Toxic toys, X-Ray Fluorescence, XRF — Seth Goldberg @ 12:03 pm

Consumer Reports has been doing spot check tests on children’s products found in the marketplace. Their testing has found that there has been some progress in the amount of lead found in children’s product, yet it is still found and sometimes at very high levels (above federal regulations), they are also finding cadmium and this harmful heavy metal appears to be on the rise. In the past few months, millions of products have been recalled by the CPSC for having been found with lead or cadmium.

Current regulations limit lead are total content found (90 Parts per Million (PPM) in painted surfaces, 300 PPM for all other children’s products, this will potentially decrease to 100 PPM in 2011). Cadmium is not regulated like lead (the CPSC is working on new regulations for cadmium), and currently has a voluntary standard of 75 PPM, but is a soluble amount in the surface coating, not total amount like lead.

Cadmium is a carcinogen and can cause many different health problems. Children are more susceptible to small doses of cadmium from toys and other consumer products, cadmium can potentially damage their developing organs. Long-term exposure of cadmium, even at low levels can be harmful to anyone.

Earlier this year, McDonald’s recalled 12 million “Shrek Forever After 3D” drinking glasses. Since June 30th 2010, over 200,000 pieces of children’s jewelry have been recalled for high levels of cadmium. Consumer Reports has found cadmium in children’s jewelry, metal barrettes and vinyl children’s products, as well as finding lead in a variety of consumer items.

Consumer Products found with Cadmium

As a business owner who specializes in helping people and businesses “know what is in their environment” we at Essco Safety Check have found lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals in children’s products, ceramics, jewelry, housing and structures, tile, baby items, kitchen products and more. For three years Essco Safety Check has been providing X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing services using hand-held XRF analyzers to provide knowledge about your environment. We have provided testing for moms and dads, businesses, industries, governments and more.

Essco Safety Check has been involved with several national recalls for both lead and cadmium.

Check out:

Lead and Cadmium found in Yellow Bumbo Seats

Know what is in your environment and mitigate harm!

Comments (0)

January 11, 2010

The US CPSC is investigating cadmium found in children’s jewelry

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: cadmium, Children's Jewelry, Consumer Product Testing, CPSIA, Essco - Safety Check, X-Ray Fluorescence, XRF — Seth Goldberg @ 8:52 pm

What can I say? Being on the frontlines by operating a consumer product testing business, I’ve seen this trend developing. My company, Essco Safety Check, was mentioned along with HealthyStuff.org for providing data to Justin Pritchard, the AP reporter who wrote the article “AP: Feds probe cadmium in kids’ jewelry from China” January 10th, 2010

All indication from our testing data suggests that cadmium appears to be increasing in all consumer products, not just children’s jewelry. We also have seen an increase in antimony, while lead appears to be leveling in children’s products, which is regulated fairly strictly. However, our testing has shown an increase in lead in non-children’s products.

Apparently, the Associated Press conducted their own independent testing of children’s jewelry purchased in New York, Ohio, Texas and California. Their testing was conducted by chemistry professor Jeff Weidenhamer of Ashland University of Ohio, who has worked with the CPSC in the past. The results found cadmium in children’s jewelry at a level of 100,000 PPM (10%) or greater in 12 percent of the 103 items tested. This testing is what is leading the US CPSC to investigate cadmium found in children’s jewelry.

Let me give you some back ground information for you to understand what cadmium is and how it is regulated.

Cadmium is a metal found naturally occurring in the earth’s crust. It does not corrode easily and has many uses, including batteries, pigments, metal castings, and plastics. However, Cadmium is a known carcinogen, plain and simple. It is a potentially harmful toxicant!

Why is it increasing in our consumer products? Fairly simply in my opinion, lead is now a fairly well regulated metal and manufacturers are substituting a metal (cadmium) that is readily available, has limited regulations and is inexpensive.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) does include cadmium in their regulations, as well as other elements, like lead. However, the regulations for lead include total content and soluble content. Cadmium only has a soluble content regulation and that portion of the regulation (soluble content ASTM-F963) is currently under a stay for the general certificate of conformity and third-party approved testing.

Consumer products are still required to be safe from the regulated metals, but the testing standards and certification process is on a little delay.

What does this mean? In my opinion, Washington State had it right when they wrote their children’s product safety act of 2008. This act regulated both lead and cadmium in total content.

Additional, this is also another reason, in my opinion, to utilize X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzers and how they can impact the CPSIA and help people and businesses know what is in their environment. In one quick push of a button, of course with some proper training, you can non-destructively test for lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and other elements. XRF analyzers are mobile, cost effective, efficient and accurate machines to identify a variety of heavy metals.

One quick note…just because an item such as children’s jewelry may have a harmful metal such as lead or cadmium does not mean that that item will harm anyone. But if that item does have lead or cadmium, it may be harmful and you should understand what is in your environment to mitigate harm.

Comments (6)