Jewelry Business Articles & News

MPCA gives guidelines for disposing of lead-containing jewelry

March 31st, 2006

MPCA gives guidelines for disposing of lead-containing jewelry
West Central Tribune, MN 

ST. PAUL
Jewelry and other products believed to contain high levels of lead should be disposed of at a household hazardous waste site, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said.

The MPCA issued this week’s advisory after a 4-year-old Minneapolis boy recently died from lead poisoning. Jarnell Brown, 4, of Minneapolis died of lead poisoning Feb. 22 after swallowing a charm from a bracelet distributed by Reebok. The charm was found to be 90 percent lead and has since been recalled.

The MPCA said concerned parents should not throw such trinkets in the trash but should take them to a household hazardous-waste site.

Since media reports of the boy’s death, parents “have been ringing the phones off the hook” at the Minnesota Department of Health and asking what products they should throw out, said John Gilkeson, an MPCA toxicity reduction expert. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission also has received calls from people wondering what to do with the bracelets. Some callers were instructed to throw them out or return the products to stores.

Minnesota officials are trying to offer clearer guidance because initially, “we didn’t put together a coherent disposal message,” Gilkeson said.

The state has a program for disposing of lead weights used for fishing, but officials didn’t let people know the same procedures should be followed with children’s lead jewelry and toys, Gilkeson said.

Household lead products collected at the hazardous waste sites will be recycled into buckshot, car batteries, fishing tackle, electronic solder and circuits and other materials.

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