Walmart and Claire's stores in Philadelphia and across the country started pulling popular children's jewelry items from their shelves yesterday in the wake of a highly publicized report that these jewelry items can carry harmful toxic levels of the dangerous heavy metal cadmium. Philadelphia parents were justifiably alarmed to discover that the jewelry their children may be wearing could contain dangerous levels of a known toxin and carcinogen. Health officials warned that the risk of serious personal injury from cadmium is greater than the dangers posed by lead.
Shiny, strong and malleable at low temperatures, cadmium has become the key to China's low-cost production of cheap jewelry exported to the U.S. and sold in Philadelphia stores. In the pursuit of low cost goods China has a history of ignoring potential personal injury health issues (remember the lead paint scare?). While international standards limit cadmium levels for fashion jewelry to not more than 0.1%, an Associated Press investigation found much higher levels in China-made children's jewelry purchased in the U.S. Laboratory tests found at least 10% cadmium in 10% of the children's jewelry items tested with some pieces of jewelry containing as much as 80% to 90% of the extremely toxic metal.
Concern about potential health risks and personal injury to children in Philadelphia and across the U.S. has sparked investigations by federal and state agencies. Philadelphia personal injury lawyers work to protect Philadelphia children from serious personal injury caused by defective products. The cadmium jewelry scare is just the latest in a long list of defective products produced without concern for the welfare and safety of Philadelphia children. According to recent medical research, cadmium can hinder the brain development of the young children to which this jewelry is marketed and is known to cause cancer.
