China Probes Exporters as Walmart Withdraws Bracelets

China is investigating jewelry exporters as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Claire’s Stores Inc. withdrew bracelets and pendants on concerns they may contain the toxic metal cadmium.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission yesterday said it will develop standards to regulate toxic metals in children’s products. Some Chinese manufacturers use cadmium, a carcinogenic heavy metal, to make charm bracelets and shiny pendants sold in the U.S. because they are banned from using lead, the Associated Press reported Jan. 11.

Shantou Menshy Toys & Crafts Co., a toymaker based in Guangdong, southern China, said cadmium usually exists in toy cars’ paint. “Our key concern is not whether there is cadmium or not in our products, but whether it is over the limit set by countries,” sales manager Marco Guo said in Hong Kong today. About 60 to 70 percent of the closely held company’s products are exported to Europe and the U.S., he said.

Health Hazards

Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, said Jan. 11 it’s withdrawn jewelry amid concerns they may contain cadmium. Claire’s, the largest U.S. retailer of costume jewelry for teenagers, said it is pulling a bracelet linked to the news report.

The products are the latest Chinese-made goods linked to health hazards after Mattel Inc. recalled toys in 2007, melamine-tainted milk was blamed for the deaths of six babies in 2008 and drywall made in China was linked to health complaints last year.

Brief inhalation of high concentrations of cadmium may cause lung disease, according to the website of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Swallowing high doses of the metal can cause abdominal cramps and irritate the small intestine, it said.

Children can get low-level exposure to cadmium by sucking or biting on tainted goods without having to swallow them, the AP reported. Some of the items it tested were bought at Walmart or Claire’s stores, it said.

‘Abundance of Caution’

“While we have no reason to believe that this product is unsafe, out of an abundance of caution, we are taking this action,” Claire’s, which has about 3,000 stores in North America and Europe, said in a statement on its Web site. Claire’s is owned by private-equity firm Apollo Management LP.

Mattel, the world’s biggest toymaker, in 2007 recalled more than 21 million China-made toys because of design flaws or paint with too much lead. In 2008, melamine-tainted milk was blamed for the deaths of six babies and ailments in about 300,000 children in China.

Last year, drywall made in China and imported into the U.S. was linked to corrosion of metal and wires in homes and may also be harming people’s health, according to a report by the product safety commission.

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