Lead contamination of inexpensive plastic jewelry

The neurological hazards of lead to children are well-known. As a result of recent documented cases of lead poisoning, regulatory attention in the United States has focused on the lead content of children's metal jewelry. By contrast, little is known about the possible hazards of plastic jewelry items. The objective of this study was to determine whether inexpensive plastic jewelry is a possible source of toxic lead for children. Samples of more than 100 inexpensive plastic jewelry items were analyzed for lead content. Beads were screened by soaking in 1 M nitric acid. Nine items found to release more than 30 microg of lead per bead were further tested for accessible lead, and scrapings of the bead coatings were analyzed for total lead content. The maximum accessible lead found was 49 microg per bead, which is below the current US Consumer Product Safety Commission limit of 175 microg. However, when the number of beads in each item was taken into account, six of the nine leaded samples contained more than 175 microg accessible lead per item. The lead in these items appears to be associated with lead-based paints used to produce glossy coatings on imitation pearls and similar items. Coatings obtained by scraping individual beads contained 3.5-23% lead, which far exceeds the US regulatory limit of 0.06% lead in paints on items intended for children. Our results demonstrate that plastic jewelry items merit the attention of public health and consumer protection agencies seeking to limit the exposure of children to lead.