New Minnesota Law to Limit Cadmium in Children’s Jewelry
Minnesota's Governor has signed into law a bill to, among other things, prohibit the sale or offer for sale of children's jewelry with cadmium levels above 75 parts per million (ppm).
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According to industry sources, Minnesota is the first state to finalize such a law, which comes in the wake of January 2010 reports that manufacturers (predominantly in China) were substituting in children’s jewelry the heavy metal cadmium, which is not limited in Federal regulations, in the place of lead, which is limited.
Highlights of Minnesota’s Bill
The following are highlights of Minnesota’s new bill:
Effective Jan 1, 2011 for mfrs. Effective January 1, 2011, manufacturers and wholesalers will not be able to sell or offer for sale in Minnesota children's jewelry that fails to meet the cadmium requirements. The same requirement takes effect for retailers on March 1, 2011.
Applies to jewelry for ages 0-6. The prohibition will apply to jewelry for children ages six and younger. Jewelry will include: anklets, arm cuffs, bracelets, brooches, chains, crowns, cuff links, decorated hair accessories, earrings, necklaces, pins, rings, or body piercing jewelry or any bead, chain, link, pendant, or other component of these products.
Limits cadmium in coatings, substrate. The bill will limit cadmium to 75 ppm in any surface coating or accessible1 substrate material of metal or plastic components of children's jewelry, as determined through solubility testing for heavy metals defined in the ASTM International Safety Specification on Toy Safety, ASTM F-963 and subsequent versions of this standard.
Would be superseded by Federal standard. The bill’s limit on cadmium would be superseded by a federal standard regulating cadmium in children's jewelry. In addition, the bill will not regulate any product category for which an existing federal standard regulates cadmium exposure in surface coatings and accessible substrate materials as required under ASTM F-963.
CPSC Considering Regulation of Cadmium in Children’s Jewelry, Etc
There is currently no federal limit on cadmium use in children’s jewelry. However, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Chairman Tenenbaum has recently stated that CPSC is conducting research to determine the level of cadmium that it would allow in children’s jewelry. She added that the agency is considering either regulating cadmium under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act to make it a banned hazardous substance in children’s jewelry or under the surface coating requirements of the ASTM F963 toy standard that is now a mandatory CPSC standard.
1Any area of the product that can be contacted by the accessibility probe described in ASTM F963 will be considered accessible.
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/12/10 news, 10051237, for BP summary of CPSC announcing recalls of children’s jewelry with high cadmium.
See ITT’s Online Archives or 04/21/10 news, 10042128, for BP summary of CPSC Chairman Tenenbaum’s statement on cadmium regulation.
See ITT’s Online Archives or 01/12/10 news, 10011210, for BP summary of CPSC’s January 2010 announcement it was launching an investigation of cadmium in children’s jewelry.)
Status of Bill SF2510 available at https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_detail.php?b=Senate&f=SF2510&ssn=0&y=2010
Text of Bill SF2510 (cadmium regulations are on lines 150.1-150.28) available at https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=S2510.4.html&session=ls86