Rainbow Apparel of America, Inc. has made it onto a list of health violators by offering jewelry for children containing potentially deadly lead, for the fourth time in over a year. California Attorney General Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr. issued a consumer alert warning last Wednesday and sent a ‘notice of violation’ to Rainbow Apparel.
“This jewelry represents a serious health hazard,” Brown said in a statement, “and it is especially dangerous if a child gets a hold of it and puts it in his or her mouth. Some of these bangles are almost solid lead. The jewelry must be banished from retailers’ shelves once and for all.”
This is one of many problems Brown has tackled. He is running for Governor of California against Meg Whitman. Brown is a former one term governor, and former mayor of Oakland, California. Whitman is the former CEO of Ebay. Her company contributed to Brown’s campaign for attorney general in 2006, reported California Watch, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Many corporation contribute to candidates from both parties, for various reasons.
Some of the jewelry was labeled ‘Kids’ and one of the pieces said, ‘Lead Free’ while containing an over 80 percent lead clasp that could be lethal for a child if he or she swallowed the piece. No amount of lead is safe for a child. Their developing nervous systems are vulnerable to toxins, much more so than the nervous systems of adults.
All the jewelry sold had pieces containing over 50 percent lead. Some had parts containing 97 percent lead. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) deals with toxic chemicals including lead tainted products at retail stores across America. Executive Director of CEH, Michael Green said in a statement, “Shoppers should know that when you buy Rainbow jewelry, you may be buying a hunk of nearly pure lead.”
In 2006 the CEH introduced an agreement to eliminate lead-tainted jewelry to be brought into retail stores early in 2007 and ban the selling of the products by September that year. Rainbow Apparel Distribution Center Corp., Rainbow Apparel of America, Inc. and Rainbow Sales Incorporated were party out of the many others to sign the agreement.
Just a day after the notice was issued, another Californian based jewelry producer voluntarily recalled some of their coin purses and jewelry meant for children. Daiso California LLC of Hayward found toxic levels of lead in surface paint on zippers in coin purses and clasps in jewelry.
The products sold by Daiso were manufactured in China, as were the Rainbow products, and also in Korea. Even though Rainbow Apparel has issued requests to their vendors to comply with the health and safety standards of CEH for lead used in jewelry manufacturing, the problem keeps recurring. The amount of lead allowed in plated metal components is six percent.
Friends Read Free