Wal-Mart To Test Kids' Jewelry For Cadmium - "We Feel Like It Is Our Responsiblity"

[hatrack]

Yah think?

:eyes:

LOS ANGELES -- The world's largest retailer revealed Monday that it has started to crack down on the use of the toxic metal cadmium in children's jewelry and other kids' products. The new policy doesn't affect what's on the shelves of Wal-Mart stores right now. Instead, children's jewelry and craft-making kits, toys and child-care articles such as bibs and pacifiers manufactured as of April 9 are being tested for cadmium, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said.

Setting new standards is a voluntary move. Though cadmium can harm bones and kidneys and is a known carcinogen, there are no government regulations on how much of it is allowed in children's jewelry. Wal-Mart's decision was spurred by investigative reports by The Associated Press that showed high levels of cadmium in some pieces of children's jewelry, including several which Wal-Mart later recalled.

EDIT

Wal-Mart's new testing regimen follows cadmium standards set by the European Union, according to Peggy Fowler, the chain's senior director of product safety and regulatory compliance. She told agency staff that Wal-Mart wants U.S. regulators to devise a standard for acceptable cadmium levels as soon as possible — and that in the meantime, the company is working off the European model. "We really wanted it to be done to affect product this year," Fowler told agency representatives. "We feel like it is our responsibility if we're going to have product on our shelves."

In the two weeks since Wal-Mart's testing went into effect, no product has failed, Fowler said. She did not say who conducted the tests or how many products have been subjected to them. Product in stores right now isn't being tested under the new regimen, Fowler said; that type of working backward would be too difficult, she said, a point echoed by a representative of Target Corp.

EDIT

http://www.wcnc.com/news/consumer/Wal-Mart-to-limit-toxic-cadmium-in-kids-products-92414509.html

[Statistical]

1. WTF? "that type of working backward would be too difficult"

So cadmium so dangerous that Walmart will test all future items to levels of cadmium however the stuff already on the shelves. Well it might be lethal but eventually people will buy it all (and take it home to their kids). See then it is "gone" so why bother testing that?

The sad thing is that actually makes sense to some people.