The Jewelry Safety Coalition, comprised of leading industry groups, pledged support
for the Consumer Product Safety Commission and ASTM International’s efforts to
create children’s jewelry safety standards.

The coalition urged the CPSC to adopt more rigorous testing procedures.

The Coalition consists of the Fashion Jewelry and Accessories Trade Association, Jewelers of America and MJSA.

Coalition members called for the ASTM F-963 or EN 71-3
testing protocols to be adopted here in the U.S., and had recently sent a
detailed response to the CPSC advocating for them, and submitting
FJATA-commissioned testing research supporting their adoption.

The CPSC report stated  that
the test methods recommended in the toy safety standards, ASTM F-963 and the
European EN 71-3, are inadequate for evaluating children’s potential exposure
to heavy metals (such as cadmium) from products such as metal jewelry.
 The method recommended by the ASTM and European standards calls for a
digestive acid simulation test that determines the amount of cadmium that can
“migrate” or leach out of a product sample over a two-hour period
when immersed in an acid solution. The CPSC did not find fault with this kind
of migration test, but it did recommend that the test be extended to a 24-hour
period.

The coalition pointed out that companies, such as Walmart, are already
using these testing protocols to screen for the presence of cadmium and other
heavy metals in children’s jewelry. Of the four states that have adopted
cadmium regulations, two states (Illinois and Minnesota) also approved ASTM
F-963 testing methods. (The other two states, California and Connecticut, call
for a more complicated total weight test, which determines the total amount of
cadmium by destroying the object and weighing its elements.) 

JCK