The state Department of Toxic Substances Control announced Tuesday that six Southern California companies were selling jewelry with lead levels far exceeding California's legal limits.
Labels on some of the jewelry, the agency noted, claimed that the products were lead free.
"Lead is a toxic metal which does not belong in jewelry," said Maziar Movassaghi, acting director of the agency. "The fact that items are mislabeled as lead free is extremely disturbing."
Most of the tainted jewelry was imported from China, the agency said.
In children, lead exposure can cause neurological damage and learning impairment. In adults, it's associated with cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, as well as memory loss.
A 2007 state law limits the amount of lead in children's jewelry to 200 parts per million or 660 ppm, depending on the component used. The law now covers adult jewelry as well.
Yet the state agency found more than 30 pieces of lead-tainted jewelry in the six locations. Wooden angel pendants sold at one firm were made of nearly three-quarters lead. A turquoise stone pendant necklace also contained extremely high levels of lead, as did medallions and crosses, which some people press to their lips while praying.
The state's testing mirrored similar findings by the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland. Between November and March, it purchased jewelry from 23 retailers, and found that six sold products violating
the state's lead-in-jewelry laws. The Oakland group said it also notified Longs Drugs four times in the past six months that it was selling lead-tainted jewelry in California; however, the state agency also found jewelry with excess lead at a Longs store in Northridge.
Mike DeAngelis, a spokesman for Longs, said in an e-mail that after the state Attorney General's office contacted the chain in March about the tainted jewelry in its Northridge location, "we removed the product from our store immediately." DeAngelis didn't respond to questions regarding Longs' policy for screening products sold in its California stores for excess lead.
The toxic substances control agency said consumers wishing to test products for lead can purchase testing kits at most hardware stores. Any product found to exceed state levels should be returned to the place of purchase.
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