Toys aren’t the only gift this season that could contain dangerous amounts of lead.
Jewelry purchased at major retailers, including Wal-Mart and Banana Republic stores, violated California laws controlling lead content, the nonprofit Center for Environmental Health in Oakland said Tuesday.
Jewelry with excessive lead content also was found at Lane Bryant, Express, Anchor Blue, Abercrombie & Fitch and Longs Drug Stores. The state attorney general has contacted several of the retailers.
The center tested 400 jewelry pieces from 32 retailers and found that 21 pieces from seven retailers – or about 5 percent of all the jewelry tested – had lead content that exceeded the state’s Proposition 65 anti-toxics laws. The jewelry was purchased in stores in the Bay Area and Los Angeles areas in September through November.
“The good news is when we started testing jewelry five years ago, it was relatively easy for us to find high level of lead,” said Charles Margulis, spokesman for the center, adding that 20 to 30 percent of jewelry tested was not in compliance.
Margulis said the companies may have improved but should not be selling jewelry that has too much lead. “It’s still much too high,” he said. “There is a law about this, and the industry needs to clean up.”
The amount of lead in the coating of children’s jewelry must be limited to 600 parts per million, according to a state law that went into effect in September 2007.
Lead is known to cause cancer and reproductive problems, as well as mental and physical retardation.
A surface coating on a frog charm on a Wal-Mart brand child’s necklace contained 37 percent lead, or more than 600 times the legal limit. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the company directed stores in California to remove this item from shelves and blocked its sale at registers as it investigates further.
The 2007 law, which phases in lead content levels for adult jewelry, followed a consent agreement signed a year earlier by 70 retailers to settle a lawsuit over lead content in children’s costume jewelry. Different limits are set for adult jewelry and various jewelry parts.
According to the test results, 14 of the 21 pieces with high lead content had metal pieces that contained more than 50 percent lead.
Longs, the Walnut Creek chain recently bought by CVS/Caremark Corp. in Woonsocket, R.I., was the worst offender, selling 13 of the 14 highest lead content products at the stores. A CVS spokesman said the company removed all the products by November.
A spokeswoman for Gap Inc., the San Francisco parent company of Banana Republic, said the retailer has been directed to remove the product in question pending further investigation.
Express and Abercrombie & Fitch Co., based in New Albany, Ohio, disputed the center’s findings.
Abercrombie’s general counsel, David Cupps, said the company sent five items from each of the three styles found to be out of compliance for independent testing. He said all items were within legal limits. “It seems to indicate the center’s results are in error,” Cupps said.
A spokeswoman for Express, in Columbus, Ohio, said the company also did its own tests but decided to remove the products from stores, even though they fell within the limits.
Officials from the Center for Environmental Health said the group’s lawyers will speak with the retailers, but it stands behind its testing.
Getting the lead out
— It’s difficult to determine whether metal jewelry pieces or coatings contain lead. Suspicious products include dull-looking metals, coated fake pearls, and plastic or vinyl cords.
— Avoid giving small children jewelry, especially pieces with metal parts and fake pearls. Safer products for older children and adults include silver, leather and some ceramic beads.
— The Center for Environmental Health is hosting several toy-testing events throughout the Bay Area, where people can go to get jewelry tested. For more information, go to www.cehca.org.
Source: Center for Environmental Health
E-mail Victoria Colliver at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page C – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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