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BENTONVILLE, AR — Walmart agreed to pull a line of toxic cadmium-laced jewelry from its shelves on Wednesday within hours of a press report suggesting the company sold the wares despite knowing they were tainted as early as February.
The Associated Press purchased and tested 61 pieces of Miley Cyrus-branded jewelry and make-it-yourself bracelet charms sold around the country, discovering the average cadmium content was about 16 percent, the news service reported today.
High cadmium levels in jewelery may problematic if they are swallowed, sucked or bitten; cadmium can cause kidney failure and bone softening in cases of long-term exposure. Walmart found out about the results in February. In April, the company announced it would require suppliers to prove children's jewelry and other products contained low cadmium levels, but the policy didn't cover items already in stores.
Walmart's only comment for the AP story indicated the jewelry from Cyrus, a popular figure among fans of the teen-oriented television show "Hannah Montana," was aimed at juniors.
Three hours after the AP story appeared, Walmart issued a statement indicating it would yank the implicated jewelry from sale as it investigates.
The AP reported in January that some Chinese manufacturers, under pressure to remove lead from kids' items, were replacing it with cadmium. The news service tested more than 100 pieces of kids' jewelry, finding that nearly 14 percent contained cadmium, with sample having 91 percent cadmium by weight.
Image CC licensed by Flickr user mchessler10023.
The real scoop on cadmium
Important information on the status of cadmium in the environment can be found at the National Institute for Environmentsl Health Science (NIEHS). There is an older but extensive monograph on Cadmium at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
GWade
Cadmium vs. lead
Cadmium is a fluxing component of silver brazing. It has been largely phased out in the U.S. because of the dangers presented by the toxic fume release to the brazers, but it is still available even here. Lead would be used in lower temperature joining techniques, like soldering, in which it would be a component [lead/tin is a common solder], or in paints, or even as a part of the product itself.
The difference, then, is only why the toxic element got there in the first place. Cadmium's sole purpose is to make the melting temperature of the silver brazing compound lower, and to increase flow of the silver compound, likely to cut the cost of an additional proper silver flux, such as a high temperature "Chemical Family: Inorganic salts of fluorine and boron flux."
Maybe that doesn't matter, but linking cadmium with lead exposure is inaccurate. They just aren't used in the same fashion.